


The Knight with Two Souls

by GMaster1991



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Spiritual, TV Tropes - Living on Borrowed Time, TV Tropes - Sharing a Body
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2018-12-01 08:13:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,518
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11482284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GMaster1991/pseuds/GMaster1991
Summary: After the Fall of Beacon and Haven, Jaune discovers that a piece of the soul of someone very dear to him remains with him even after her death, and that her thoughts and feelings will become intertwined with his own. (This is my personal prediction on what might happen on the show a few volumes later. Uses historical elements that are based off of Jaune's real-world distaff counterpart, Joan of Arc, and her reputation of supposedly hearing voices in her head. Uses an OC from "The Source" as a character. Warning: HUGE Volume 4 spoilers!)





	1. Death Maiden's Command

The sights and sensations around him were so frightening and vivid… He was on top of Beacon Tower, but the sky was red and foggy. Somehow, his ankle was in agonizing pain, as if someone jammed a thick needle in it. He tried to stand back up, but the pain in his ankle was too great for him to put any weight on it. When he looked back at his ankle, he could see what looks like a broken piece of an arrow embedded within it.

Immediately afterwards, he could hear a wicked, yet honey-filled voice, “It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours.”

He looked up and saw what could only be described as a flaming demon, as it continued to speak to him, “But take comfort in knowing that I will use it in ways you could never have imagined.”

He knew something was about to happen, but he felt so helpless. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t fight.

He heard another voice so clearly, as if it was speaking through him, “Do you believe in destiny?”

The demon’s eyes narrowed and spoke one word, “Yes.”

An obsidian bow formed in the demon’s hands as it aimed it directly toward him. It pulled an arrow back and fired it directly at his heart. It only hurt for a brief moment, and then… everything felt numb. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t speak. He could only try as hard as he could to breathe. Everything went black until…

Jaune woke up out of that nightmare, gasping for breath, as if something had been suffocating him. He’s been having nightmares like this every night for weeks ever since Haven fell. That particular nightmare was the one that was most frequent, but he also had other ones. Sometimes, he would see an innocent soul wrapped by wires and ripped apart in front of him, and other times, he would feel himself trapped behind a glass pane. It was as if he kept seeing things through… her eyes… before she…

There was a knock on the wooden door next to him, “Sir?”

The sudden knock brought Jaune back to reality. He was staying at the Higanbana Inn for the night after he and the rest of his friends got separated after Haven fell. It was unbelievable! One minute, there was actually a chance at driving back the evil that had taken so much from him and his fellow Hunters (technically, Hunters-in-training anyway), and the next… Lionheart’s a backstabber and Salem actually got her hands on a Relic! This is wrong! Everything was all wrong! How much more of thi..?

The innkeeper’s voice could be heard through the door again, “Sir? Are you all right?”

This interrupted Jaune’s internal angst for the time being. He’s been staying at the inn for weeks now. It was one of the places that he and the rest of Team RNJR stopped at before they arrived at Haven, and since he didn’t have any idea where to look for them now or even if they are still alive, it made sense to just wait for one of them… or anyone from Beacon to stumble here. After all, this is one of the few villages that were still in one piece after Haven’s fall, and with all of the misery that came from that tragedy, there were now more Grimm than ever, and this village needed all the protection it could get. He wasn’t the only Huntsman doing this, either. There were many of Haven’s former students that ended up here, and most of them ended up this way because they lost their families and have nowhere else to go. Speaking of families, Jaune could only wonder if his family was still alive after all of this. He had no way to contact them after the CCTS went down, and even if he did… what would he tell them? That he had faked his transcripts to get into Beacon? That he failed to protect Beacon and Haven? That this series of events ended up happening because he had that one job of protecting the Fall Maiden and he managed to screw something that simple up? No! He wasn’t going to quit now! He had to keep going! He had to live up to his great-grandfather’s legacy like his grandfather and father before him… and for… her. So here he was… playing the role of ‘defender’ because that’s all he can do at this point.

The innkeeper turned the doorknob and opened it slightly, “Sir? You’re having that nightmare again, aren’t you?”

Jaune was still wiping the sweat off of his face from that nightmare, “Oh! Uh… Yea... Guess I was talking in my sleep again…”

The innkeeper noticed the sky outside the window, “Dawn is still a couple hours away. Can I get you anything to lull you back to sleep?”

Jaune still had his mind troubled and turned to lie back down in his bed, “No… It’s okay.”

The innkeeper took a second to look at Jaune with worry before leaving and closing the door behind him.

Jaune relaxed for a brief moment and was about to go back to sleep before he heard what sounded like the adorable laughter of a little girl. When he did, he sat back up in his bed looking for the source of that laughter. He looked around for another moment and wondered if he was just hearing things due to a lack of rest. He laid back down in his bed and closed his eyes.

That is… until he heard that same voice echoing all around him, “You’ve got a long journey ahead of you, mortal!”

When he heard that, Jaune quickly reached from the side of his bed and grabbed his sword. When he sat up again, he noticed that his surroundings were completely monochrome!

That little girl's voice could be heard echoing some more, "Aw… You shouldn’t be afraid. I’ve only ever came to collect when it’s somebody’s time to die.”

Jaune jumped out of his bed and frantically looked around for the source of the voice.

That little girl's voice could be heard echoing even more, "And your time… hasn’t come… yet. But it’s up to you to decide if death shall come for you later… or sooner. How you do that… depends on how well you listen to what I have to say.”

Jaune slowly put his back to the wall and grabbed his shield that was hanging nearby. With his shield firmly in his hand, he quietly uttered three words, “Where are you?”

Unexpectedly, Jaune would get an answer from this voice… from directly behind him through the wall, “Right here!”

Jaune frantically turned around to see the mist covered face of a little girl sticking out of the wall!

This little girl’s head responded with a cheerful, “Hello!”

Without warning, the rest of this little girl emerged from the wall in a foggy mist and hovered above the floor like a ghost. It looked like a little robed Faunus girl with wings sticking out of her back and loops in her head.

The little Faunus girl looked back at Jaune and talked to him some more, "Who is this little girl? Is she real? Is she dangerous? That's what you're thinking, right?"

Before Jaune had a chance to respond, the little Faunus girl talked even more, “Yeah. You can't play hide-and-go-seek with what you're thinking. You can't play hide-and-go-seek with anything, actually? Not if **we're** playing... **We** get to see everything. But I didn’t come here to freak your little mortal brain out… even if it **is** really fun."

Jaune didn’t let his guard down for a second, “Who are you?”

The little Faunus girl introduced herself by bowing in midair, “I... am a part of the First Race. You can think of me as a 'Primordial' if you want… but if you’re anything like the last mortal I talked to, you’ll probably want a little more than that. You see, Primordials are different from humans and Faunus…es…es.”

The little Faunus (or Primordial) girl paused after that brief mispronunciation of the plural form of Faunus, “From your teeny-tiny mortal mind, the best way to describe myself is by a title. You should know what a ‘Maiden’ is by now, right? Well, I’m best described as… the Death Maiden.”

The Death Maiden’s eyes suddenly glowed in a golden color as she stared right at Jaune, “And I have been looking for you for a **very** long time.”

Jaune wondered to himself if she was anything like the Fall Maiden.

This ‘Death Maiden’ appeared from a foggy mist next to one of the walls and started **walking on it sideways** , as if her feet could stick to the wall. She paced in circles along the wall with her hands behind her back and her eyes locked on Jaune, “No, I’m nothing like her or any of the other Seasonal Maidens. **They** are mortal. **They** can die. But enough about that…”

Obviously, the fact that this girl was walking on the wall like something out of a horror flick made Jaune even more untrusting of her, “Wait! You know about the other Maidens? You know where they are?!”

The Death Maiden stopped walking in circles for a moment and stared at Jaune from the wall, “Well, my family basically runs this whole world like a game, so we know everything that goes on here!”

Jaune was quickly losing his patience (not that he had much to begin with, given that this girl just suddenly came out of a wall and started talking about Maidens), “Tell me everything! Everything in…”

The Death Maiden made an overly dramatic imitation of Jaune’s high-pitched voice, “In the world is on the verge of collapse here! I’m so tired of losing everything! Wangst this! Drama that! Waaaah waaaah waaaah!”

She spoke in her normal voice after that tirade, “Look, we’re not gonna get anywhere if I keep playing ‘Twenty Questions’ with you, so if you value your life, you’ll listen to what I’m trying to say ‘cuz I’m only gonna say this stuff once!”

Was this little girl trying to threaten hi..?

The Death Maiden interrupted the narration, “No, mortal! I’m not threatening you! I know you don’t believe me, but what I’m about to say might just save your life, so if you don’t mind…”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the ceiling, walking upside-down, “You have something that now belongs to me and I need it back **very** soon.”

Jaune didn’t know whether to be more surprised by the Death Maiden’s powers or her declaration, “What are you talking about?”

The Death Maiden thought to herself for a moment before answering, “Hmm… Yea, I guess you really couldn’t know. Okay, I guess you’ll need some more details.”

Then, she pointed at the chair in the room, “You might wanna sit down. This’ll take a lot of exposition, and I know how easily tired mortals get from standing for a long time.”

Jaune refused to let down his guard by sitting down for even a second.

The Death Maiden noticed this and shrugged, “Okay then… I’ll just get right to it. You have a piece of someone else’s soul dwelling within you.”

Jaune didn’t believe this for a second, but played along with her, “And… how did that happen?”

The Death Maiden started walking in circles on the ceiling, “Think back to your time in Emerald Forest… during your initiation into Beacon Academy. You know… the place you used fake transcripts to get into?”

Jaune’s guard fell for a moment when he heard that, “W-what? How did you..?”

Jaune came to realize something very quickly and uttered something quietly, “You can read my thoughts.”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the wall next to Jaune, “Oh, relax…”

Jaune was startled at the fact that this girl was suddenly standing on a wall just a foot away from him, while she continued to speak, “I’m not gonna blackmail you. I don’t care about that stuff.”

The Death Maiden bent down so that she was mere inches from Jaune’s face, “During your time there, you didn’t immediately know how to use your Aura, and so someone else had to unlock it for you. She did that by using her own Aura and linking it to yours.”

Jaune’s eyes widened as he whispered in realization, “Pyrrha…”

The Death Maiden straightened back up on the wall and pointed at Jaune, “Aura is the manifestation of mortal souls, remember? When she used her Aura to unlock hers, she inadvertently left a piece of her soul behind, and that piece has been dwelling inside you ever since!”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the floor standing upright, “My in-game role is to collect the souls of those that die.”

Jaune didn’t understand what she meant by ‘game’, “What game?”

The Death Maiden slouched and shook her head, “Okay, I put these two ‘World of Remnant’ things on the internet that explains all that stuff. Just look them up when you have the chance ‘cuz it’ll take me forever to go through all of that again, and I don’t have the time or patience to do that.”

The Death Maiden straightened herself again, “The point I’m making is that later on after that whole ‘immortal shoulder thing’, this ‘prodigy’ had earned herself the award of the most **idiotic** death of that year!”

Jaune gritted his teeth in anger, “What did you say?”

The Death Maiden ignored Jaune’s anger and continued, “And after she died, I claimed her soul and found that a piece of it was missing. I tracked down where the piece was, and… Guess what? It still resides within you, so now here I am revealing myself to you. I need that piece back from you very soon!”

Jaune was getting very frustrated now, “You take people’s souls?!”

The Death Maiden was also losing her patience, “Just… listen, okay. I’m kinda like a Grim Reaper to you mortals. When you die, I show up, I claim your soul, and you wake up in one of my domains. Got it?”

Jaune was still frustrated, and spoke after a moment of deliberation, “No! I… I don’t **get** any of this!”

The Death Maiden’s mood lightened a bit, “Uh… Figures… Well, it’s actually not that easy for me to just **take** it anyway. You see, that piece of her soul is stuck to you, and I can’t just take it without killing you first.”

Jaune took that as a threat and unsheathed his sword, while the Death Maiden had an annoyed look on her face. Her eyes glowed in a golden color again as she held out her arm toward Jaune’s sword and grabbed the blade end of it. She squeezed the blade with her bare head, which somehow caused it to rust and wither before snapping to pieces, and leaving a terrified Jaune with only a hilt for a weapon!

After that ‘lesson in humility’, the Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the ceiling directly above Jaune, “I told you! I’m not here to threaten you! Trust me! If I wanted you to be a corpse, you’d be a corpse! Now, here’s what you need to do… There’s this ‘Aura… transfery… thingy’ hidden within the ruins of the old Beacon Academy. You need to get there as soon as you can, so you can extract the soul fragment safely.”

Jaune was still very confused and cynical about all of this, “Beacon? That whole place is surrounded by Grimm! How am I even supposed to get there…”, and then he held out the hilt of his broken sword, **“Without a weapon?!** ”

The Death Maiden took one look at the fractured pieces of Jaune’s sword and held her arm out toward them. A golden light came through her fingertips and toward each fragment as they reassembled themselves upon the hilt and repaired themselves, as if it were never broken in the first place.

The Death Maiden imitated the sound of an old man, “It’s dangerous to go alone, idiot. Take this!”

Jaune silently stared at the Death Maiden with a scowl on his face, while she spoke in her normal voice again, “I think you’ve got about… eight to ten months or so.”

Jaune loosened his scowl for a moment, “Eight to ten months?”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the wall opposite of where Jaune was standing, “The soul fragment hasn’t completely assimilated itself within you yet, so you have about eight to ten months to get to that… ‘transfery machine’. If you can’t get there by then, that soul fragment will completely assimilate within you, and it’ll be stuck to you for the rest of your life. Speaking of which, there are a lot of nasty side effects that come from having a piece of someone else’s soul attached to you, including death.”

Jaune’s eyes widened in terror, “What?”

The Death Maiden took a deep breath and spoke like she was in a pharmaceutical advertisement,

“Sideeffectsofsoultumorsinclude,butarenotlimitedtonightmares,personalitychanges,talkingtoyourself,

paralysis,shortenedlifespan,andmildrashes.

Soultumorsareneverrightforyou.

Contactyourlocalheadmasterifyouthinkyouhaveasoultumor.”

Jaune couldn’t understand what she was saying because of how fast she was talking, “Whoa! Slow down!”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the floor next to him, “Basically, you’re gonna get sick, start hearing voices in your head, have dreams of that other person’s memories…”

Jaune tensed with realization, “Dreams?!”

The Death Maiden pulled what looks like a gray and purple Dust crystal out from her robe and handed it to Jaune, “Here! You’re gonna need this. When you get to that ‘transfer thingy’, place this in one of the capsules, and then sit in the other one. It’s one of my personal Dust crystals. It’s called a Soulstone. And you might wanna bring someone with you to activate the machine from the outside.”

The Death Maiden pulled a device that looks like a stopwatch that's attached to other stopwatches from out of her robe and looked at it, "Oh! Look at the time! Somebody's gonna die soon, and I gotta go pick up a new soul!"

The Death Maiden spread her wings and was about to leave until Jaune shouted at her to come back, “Wait! There are still some things I don’t und…”

The Death Maiden interrupted him, “You know everything that you need to know. Now, I don’t think this whole soul fragment stuff is your fault, so that’s why I’m giving you a chance to fix things. That… and I can’t directly interfere with mortal lives. Those two reasons are why I didn’t just make it easy on myself by just killing you and taking that soul fragment back myself. See? I’m actually pretty fair as far as Primordials go. Bye!”

The Death Maiden flew straight up toward the ceiling, vanishing before she made contact with it. Her adorable laughter could be heard echoing around the room. After that, the room started to regain color again.

Jaune was now alone in the room contemplating all of this. There was so much to take in. These nightmares he was having… They were her memories going through her mind? Jaune noticed that the clock hasn't changed at all since everything around him turned monochrome. That probably meant that this… ‘Death Maiden’ girl froze everything in time except him and herself to speak with him.

He looked at his shield, which had been tempered with the metal of his fallen friend before Haven fell, and wondered if she ended up becoming part of him, “Pyrrha…”


	2. Growing Paranoia

Dawn had arrived a few hours later, and most of the other villagers were waking up to start their day. Judging by the fact that the behavior of each person that noticed Jaune was the same as it had always been, it is clear that they were all completely oblivious to what happened within the Higanbana Inn just a few hours ago. Even the innkeeper herself didn’t act out of the ordinary. She must have assumed that Jaune’s newfound stress, lack of sleep, and tepid demeanor had simply come from another nightmare. If only it **was** just a nightmare… If only they knew…

This little girl that Jaune saw… This ‘Death Maiden’ that mocked him and knew so much about him… and Pyrrha… What was she? There was no way that she was just an ordinary person, but she wasn’t related to the Seasonal Maidens either. She directly told him that much herself. So is it possible that nobody, including the higher-ranking members of the Four Academies, knew of her existence..? Or was this Maiden just other piece of information that was kept from him as part of some ‘need to know basis’..?

And on top of all that, this ‘Maiden’ just tells him that he’s going to keep getting those nightmares every night unless he arbitrarily decides to go all the way back to the Grimm infested hellhole that used to be Beacon Academy? It’s official… This wasn’t just some typical ‘idiot stuck in a tree’ thing. It was more like something was actually out to make his life a living hell! It’s like a sick joke! The more Jaune thought contemplated all of this, the more ridiculous he seemed to appear to everyone around him. At least, that’s what it seemed like because people were starting to stare at him.

One of those people called out to him from the rooftops of one of the building, “Jay!”

This shout for attention had brought Jaune back to reality for the moment. He had time to think about all of this later. Jaune looked up toward the roof to see a familiar guy around his age waving at him: Desmond Poulengy. He has reddish yellow ‘desert’ hair and jade colored armor which seemed to make this hair ‘pop out’ through their contrasting colors.

Desmond was one of the students at Haven Academy before its fall. He and Jaune had met shortly after Team RNJR’s arrival at Haven when Lionheart had first made a speech about ‘being brave’ and ‘forging their future’. It’s ironic how much of a backstabber Lionheart turned out to be in the end. Fortunately, Desmond turned out to be a much more genuine friend. As it turned out, he and Jaune had a lot in common with one another when they first met. For starters, they both came from a long line of past heroes, and possessed weapons that have been passed through those generations. They both also started off relatively inexperienced compared to their peers, though Jaune didn’t know if Desmond faked his transcripts to get into Haven the same way he did to get into Beacon.

Another difference was that Desmond’s weapon was a tan and black crossbow instead of a sword and shield. He called it ‘Aigle Volant’. On the other hand, while the crossbow was an heirloom, the bolts that Desmond carried were customized and assorted. Some were just regular bolts, some had explosives attached to the ends, some had chains, and some even had Dust crystals for elemental attacks. Finally, Desmond himself was somewhat more relaxed and easygoing than Jaune was. They didn’t talk too much about each other’s past since they first met, but Jaune assumes that Desmond’s outlook in the face of such a decayed world comes from the fact that he hasn’t experienced as much loss and sorrow as he did.

Desmond leaped down from the roof and straight toward the ground nearby where Jaune was standing in one swoop.

Jaune nonchalantly greeted him despite this acrobatic display, “Oh. Hey there, Des.”

Desmond was somewhat more cheerful than Jaune (as his earlier description had already described him just a paragraph ago), “What’s up, man? You look all shook up! You have another crazy nightmare again?”

Jaune felt that it would be too complicated to explain everything that happened that early morning in precise detail and chose to summarize the answer instead, “Uh… Yea. Something like that.”

Desmond nudged Jaune on the arm with his elbow, “I keep telling you about that! If you just have a bit of my ‘special herbs’, you’ll stop having those nightmares.”

Jaune wasn’t amused by the idea, “And I keep telling you that your ‘herbs’ are basically drugs.”

Desmond feigned surprise, “No, they’re not! I mean… I know you can’t think straight for a while, but it’s all natural! It just relaxes you and…”

Jaune interrupted him, “Des, I’m trying to manage the defense of a whole village here. I need my brain right now.”, and then paused for a moment before continuing, “Did you see anything during your watch?”

Desmond dropped his ‘outlook’ for a moment and answered seriously, “Always so serious, man… Yea, but it was just a few Beowolves in the woods to the northeast… Nothing that unusual. They just keep coming from there every few hours or so.”

Jaune held a thinking pose for a moment, “It’s that same spot where the woods meet the plateau, right?”

Desmond smirked, “Yeah! That’s it!”

Jaune quietly spoke to himself, thinking aloud, “They keep coming at us from that spot over and over…”, and then spoke directly to Desmond again, “Anything from Team ORNG (Orange) yet?”

Desmond shook his head, “Nothing. It’s been a week and we still haven’t found a trace of them yet. They could be anywhere in the continent by now.”

Jaune cursed under his breath briefly before giving Desmond more instructions, “Okay… Just… keep looking for them.”

Desmond tried to cheer Jaune up by putting his arm around his shoulder, “Hey! Don’t be so down like that! They’re trained Hunters, remember? They’re not gonna die that easy!”

Jaune wasn’t as positive about the situation, “They’re not ‘trained Hunters’. They’re ‘Hunters-in-training’. They were just students before Haven fell… like we used to be.”

Desmond wasn’t as negative about the situation, “Semantics. Buuuut… if it makes you feel any better, let’s just use more of our manpower to search for them? You know… Maybe **more** than just one or two Hunters at a time..?”

Jaune shook his head, “If we do that, we’re spreading ourselves too thin and Higanbana gets left wide open to the Grimm. No, they keep coming at us from that same spot in the woods over and over again. Think about it. Why?”

Desmond didn’t think about it very much, “Uh… Because they’re soulless creatures that happen to be stupid?”

Jaune was visibly holding back his irritation with Desmond, “ **No**! **Stupid** … isn’t organized enough to launch wave after wave of Beowolves from the same location over and over again, day and night, in a battle of attrition! **Stupid** … isn’t sneaky enough to have a backstabber like Lionheart working against us right under our noses! **Stupid** … isn’t scary enough to wipe out not one, but **two** Huntsman Academies! No! I am **not** going to just have everybody let their guard down and just pretend that everything’s just going to be okay, because that’s…”, and then Jaune became much more spiteful, “That’s exactly what **Ozpin** did!”

Desmond tried to calm Jaune down, “Okay. Take it easy, man.”

Jaune’s temper only flared as he continued to rant, “He was **useless**! He acted like he was this all powerful and mysterious protector, but he didn’t even notice what Cinder was doing right under his nose! He just screwed up and then forced everything on… on…”, and then Jaune’s anger became icy cold, “No! I’m not doing anything **stupid** like her! I’m **not** making the same mistake that **she** made!“

Desmond paused for a moment before responding, “She?”

Jaune’s anger subsided into awkwardness when he realized what he just said, “W-what?”

Desmond came to a (bizarre) conclusion on his own, “Ozpin was a chick?”

Jaune paused for a moment before he exhaled in a mix of annoyance and relief, “No… It’s, uh… Forget it. It doesn’t matter now.”

Desmond kept pressing for an explanation, “Or was ‘she’ someone else?”

Jaune snapped at Desmond, “I said it doesn’t matter now!”

Desmond silently stared at Jaune for a brief moment, before Jaune calmed down, “I… I’m sorry. I just… I don’t want to talk about it.”

Desmond stared at him a little more before shrugging his arms and letting the matter go, “Oooookay… So today’s plan is..?”

Jaune took a moment to gather his thoughts again and spoke to himself, “Well, let’s see… Beowolves keep coming from that one spot, so there’s probably one of those ‘nether gates’ like back in Haven. It would have had to have been built close enough to the village to maintain that steady number of Beowolves all day and night, but also far enough so that we couldn’t see it from the village. Hmm… Probably behind some trees or rocks or something…”

When he was finished, Jaune spoke louder and directly to Desmond, “Okay, here’s my plan. With Team ORNG still missing, we’ve only got three four-Hunters-in-training teams: OPAL, SFRE (sapphire), and your team, DMND (diamond). We’ve also got two fully-fledged Hunters here that aren’t related to any of the Academies who tend to pick up a lot of the slack. And then, there are seven more Hunters-in-training that were separated from their former teams, like me. Put all that together, and we still have twenty-one. Now, we all know that Beowolves aren’t so tough on their own, but if there is a nether gate, they’ll end up bringing out stronger Grimm soon. Des, I know more than anyone here that nothing gets past your eyes. I want you and the rest of Team DMND out there at that spot today. While you’re there, keep an eye out for any signs of a nether gate.”

Desmond finished Jaune’s exposition, “And if we see one, destroy it.”

Jaune pulled his scroll from his pocket and turned it on, “Yeah. Now take a look at this.”

There was a very crude picture of a white circle with black and red lines drawn around it as well as a yellow ‘eye’ in the center of the circle contained in the scroll, “I saw a nether gate that looked just like this back at Haven. The Grimm can use these to come to Remnant from… wherever Grimm come from.”

Desmond attached a cable from his scroll to Jaune’s to download the picture, “Look for a fancy symbol drawn by a five-year-old? Got it.”

Jaune briefly glared at Desmond, who grinned back at him. Jaune held his glare for a few more seconds before it cracked into brief laughter and a playful nudge on Desmond’s arm, “Jerk.”

After that brief exchange, Jaune continued with the plan, growing more paranoid with each sentence, “This is serious, though. I really think those Beowolves are just meant to be a distraction. If we keep expecting them to come from the same place over and over, we’ll end up letting our guards down everywhere else. If that happens, then Cinder, or Salem, or some other monster will come out of nowhere and find a weakness in our defenses, and this place will just burn like everything else!”

Desmond wasn’t as paranoid as Jaune was, “You really think those wackos will do all that over a village? Now, a Relic or a Maiden..? That makes sense, but we’re not guarding anything over here except for other people who can’t fight for themselves. I don’t think we have to worry about that.”

Jaune’s anger was visible again, “I don’t care! I’m not taking chances! I… I can’t go through it again! I can’t be weak! Not anymore! I…”

Suddenly, Jaune’s legs started to quiver and his arms started to bend inward uncontrollably. He collapsed on his knees while the rest of his body started shaking uncontrollably.

Desmond grabbed his friends by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes and saw them rapidly moving left and right, “Hey! You okay, Jay?”

Jaune’s vision started to blur until he could barely see Desmond inches in front of him. When a few seconds passed, his vision became completely distorted and twisted until he could only see something resembling a young female warrior covered in fog, with only the bottom of her neck up being uncovered. Her red hair was tied in a ponytail and she wore a bronze circlet on her head. Her right eye was emerald green while the left side of her face was visibly cracked from between her jawbone to her eyebrow, as if someone plunged a spear through her face. There is no blood or bone, but a faint green light emerging from the hole like a tendril from where the left eye should be.

Desmond could only watch in confusion as Jaune remained comatose with his eyes open. This confusion turned into abject horror when he saw Jaune’s left eye turn green, “Jay? Oh crap! Jay!”

After about ten seconds of twitching, Jaune’s eye turned back into its normal blue color and his limbs stopped quivering. Desmond noticed this and patted him on the head to get his attention, “What’s going on, man?”

Jaune was gasping for breath as if something had been suffocating him. He grasped onto Desmond’s shoulders tightly and screamed at the top of his lungs, “ **PYRRHAAAAA**!”

Desmond failed to understand what was wrong with Jaune and made a (really bizarre) assumption, “Uh… Gesundheit?”

Jaune slowly calmed down and his vision was returning to normal. He could see himself grabbing a confused Desmond by the shoulders. He quickly let go and slowly started to stand back up. Desmond helped his friend stand up by taking his arm over his shoulder, but Jaune was able to stand fine on his own.

There was an awkward silence between the two for about fifteen seconds until Desmond broke it, “So… That wasn’t a sneeze, was it?”

Jaune was still in a state of shock, “Uh… No. It wasn’t.”

Desmond tried to offer a suggestion, but all that came out was, “So… You, uh…”

Jaune tried to ignore what was clearly happening to him right now, “I need to go give the other teams their instructions.”

Desmond was more concerned about his friend, “You’re just stressed out. Maybe you should just take it easy for a whi…”

Jaune interrupted his friend with another rant, “No! I’m not losing anymore! I… I can’t be a failure anymore. That’s why I want to make sure every Hunter here is on constant alert. Some of us will keep watch on the morning, some in the evening, some at night… I haven’t decided which on my own, so that’s why I want to run this through with the other teams. Beacon fell because of sabotage and Haven fell because of treason, so I want some place… Any place… Just **one** village… to not be ripped apart! I want Hunters at watch 24/7! I want records of anything and everyone that goes in and out of this place! Got it? No more nasty surprises!”

Jaune took a moment to exhale and breathe after that little rant before he left without saying another word to Desmond. Desmond could only wonder if his friend has become paranoid from stress, “Uh… Later then..?”

As Jaune was looking for the leaders of the other two teams, he heard what sounded like the laughter of a little girl echoing in the wind, but nobody else seemed to react to the sound. Was that the Death Maiden again? Was she watching his every move? He remembered her warning, and it started with getting to the ruins of Beacon Academy as soon as possible, but… he couldn’t. He had too much to do here, just micromanaging the protection of one little village. In the end, maybe that was really all he was good for… Leadership… The people here depending on him and the other Hunters, and he was the one who brought them all together. How could he be expected to just get up and leave because a little winged girl told him to?


	3. Psychological Warfare

It was now in the early afternoon and all of the other teams have got their instructions. Team DMND had already left to deal with the Beowolves that keep coming from ‘that same spot where the woods meet the plateau’ about an hour ago to look for any sign of a nether gate. All four members of Team OPAL, two members of Team SFRE, and four of the unaffiliated Haven students are all taking turns patrolling the village, with five out of the ten Hunters playing ‘guard duty’ at a time. The other two members of Team SFRE have left to look for any trace of Team ORNG. Finally, the other three unaffiliated Haven students as well as both senior Hunters have evening and night watch, so they sleep during the day.

That was it for today… at least as far as the Hunters were concerned. Now, there was the matter of the much larger amount of noncombatants. Obviously, they don’t do much in the way of fighting or protection. They usually have simpler, but equally as important jobs. Some grow crops and livestock while others provide medical care for any wounded Hunters. Some design searchlights and traps as defenses while others repair the weapons and armor that Hunters use on a regular basis. It was much different to lead a bunch of noncombatant villagers than it was to lead a Hunter team. When leading mostly powerless villagers, it was much more important to manage supplies and morale than it is when leading a team of Hunters that can defend themselves. If either of these gets low, it’s almost impossible to reassure everybody that things will be all right. In a weird way, protecting a village full of people is like how it was when Jaune was alone with his seven sisters when his parents were out of the house. As the only male sibling of the Arc children, he was often seen as the ‘man of the house’ back then, so he had to go out of his way to make sure everyone was safe and happy. The only difference now is that instead of worrying about a tantrum if something went wrong, there could very well be a riot instead.

Speaking of situations resembling riots, a slightly elderly man that was bald on the top of his head and had brown hair on the sides rushed to Jaune from the side, “Captain!”

Jaune wasn’t expecting to see this man and reacted with confusion, “Mr. Viscen? What’s the matter?”

This man grabbed Jaune by the shoulders and shouted in his face, “ **GRIMM**! They’re here! They’re…”

Jaune broke the man’s grip and grabbed his shoulders in turn, “Okay, slow down and just give me details. Where and how many?”

The man was stuttering in Jaune’s grasp, “Th-th-the larder! I saw them in our food supply and…”

Jaune interrupted him for a moment, “Wait a second! The Grimm don’t eat food like we do. Are you sure you saw..?”

Before Jaune finished this sentence, the sounds of a Beowolf’s roar could be heard coming from the southwestern part of the village… where the larder was.

Jaune let go of the frightened man and muttered in his breath, “You’re kidding me…”

This was a cause of alarm for two other reasons aside from the fact that Grimm have been found in the village. The first was that they were originally coming from the area to the northeast of the village, so the fact that they were coming from the southwest was a sudden change. The second was that, if what that man was saying was true, they were actually intelligent enough to attack their food supply first! When you put these two facts together, the implications are obvious: these aren’t random Grimm attacks. Somebody is leading them!

Jaune ran right toward the relay tower in the center of town to sound the alarm while silently wondering why literally nobody else has attempted to do this. That was the reason that the relay tower was built in the first place! Ever since the CCTS went offline during the Battle of Beacon, it became impossible for any human settlements to communicate with one another over long distances, so the very first thing he had commissioned in this village when these people started looking to him as a captain was to have a small relay tower made to quickly make contact with any Hunters outside of the village that were within range of the signal, and not **one** single person thought to actually run over to use it when they really needed it!

Ultimately, he kept this irritation to himself. Aside from the Hunters, most of these people have never stood mere feet away from a Grimm. They were probably just panicking. That said, if they got through this, Jaune would have to put these people through some more emergency drills.

Speaking of emergency drills, Jaune yelled in the microphone over something that definitely wasn’t a drill, “All Hunters, this is Jaune Arc speaking! Surprise attack from an unknown number of Grimm spotted in the southwest part of the village! All Hunters respond immediately! Snow and Flora of Team SFRE, disengage the search for Team ORNG and get here right away! Team OPAL, find and evacuate any noncombatant survivors with…”

Jaune spoke quietly while thinking, “Let’s see… Route to the inn seems secure… Don’t see any airborne Grimm…”

He went back to yelling to continue with the order, “Evacuation Plan B! Team DMND, if you can hear this message, get back here ASAP and form a barricade on the northern walls! This is not a drill! Grimm have been…”

Before he could finish that sentence, Jaune saw one of the seven unaffiliated Hunters, Kobe, get ambushed from behind from three Beowolves at once from about fifty feet from where he was standing. This caused him to stop what he was doing and run over there to assist his fellow Hunter. While he was running, Jaune could hear the sound of something… like a bear… coming from behind him. Out of instinct, Jaune twisted his shield arm behind him and parried an attack from an Ursa Minor that lunged at him. The Ursa wasted no time trying to grab Jaune by the shoulders and jump on top of him. With Jaune restrained, the Ursa mauled him in his unarmored face twice before he was able to retaliate by stabbing it in the arm when it tried to strike him in the face a third time. This caused the Ursa to roar in pain, but it didn’t deter its assault. In fact, the Ursa slapped the sword right out of Jaune’s hand with a single lunge and restrained him again. It opened its mouth and clamped down on Jaune’s neck with its jaws… hard.

Jaune was struggling to breathe, let alone fight back, especially with his sword out of his reach. He could hear what sounded like a chainsaw coming closer to him and… The Ursa’s jaw suddenly weakened, which allowed Jaune to free himself. When he did, he could see the reason why. A large and burly 7-foot tall Huntsman that dressed like a lumberjack was slowly slicing down through the Ursa’s neck with his weapon (which is basically just like the Chainsaw Bayonet from Gears of War).

The feeling of the Ursa’s bony head falling right on his face caused Jaune to flail around for a second before throwing it off of him. The larger Huntsman grabbed the Ursa’s remains and tossed it off of Jaune with one hand before it dissolved into smoke.

The larger Huntsman pulled Jaune up and spoke in a Scottish accent, “Do ya have any idea what it’s like to wake up to the sound of Grimm after a 12-hour shift?”

Jaune ignored the question and desperately looked for a sign of Kobe after the three Beowolves had ambushed him, “Harl, where’s Kobe?”

The larger Huntsman (whose name is Harl) looked through the scope of his weapon looking for any signs of Grimm ambushes and answered, “Haven’t seen hide nor hair of the lad…”

After a brief moment of deliberation, Jaune had to choose ‘the needs of the many’, “We need to prioritize the safety of the villagers first and the Grimm have been seen around our food supply. We’ll keep an eye out for Kobe and help him if we can, but if we don’t hurry…”

Before Jaune had a chance to finish that sentence, he saw a bloody arm and leg fall to the ground in front of him. When he looked up to see what dropped these limbs, he saw a Beowulf standing on one of the rooftops clutching a dead body in its claws. When the Beowulf looked back at Jaune, it tossed the dead body right at Jaune. Jaune blocked the ‘attack’ with his shield without thinking, while Harl began to aim his gun at the Beowulf. Before he could fire, the Beowulf jumped off of the roof on the side opposite of where Jaune and Harl were standing.

When Jaune got a good look at just whose corpse it was that the Beowulf tossed at him, his legs started to shake, while the fresh smell of blood and bile made him feel like he had to vomit. It was Kobe! What was left of him anyway…

Harl saw the corpse of his fallen ally and had a much more restrained reaction, “Aye… There he is. Pity… Boy wasn’t even old enough to shave…”

Jaune struggled with his urge to vomit for a brief moment until he coughed out saliva from his mouth and stood back up. He held his sword and shield tightly as if he was expecting attacks from all sides, “Okay… New plan. Diamond Phalanx Formation!”

Harl sounded confused, “Lad, we need **four** Hunters to do that!”

Jaune fumbled his words around for a moment before responding, “Well… No… I mean… Look, we’re just keeping our backs on each other so we don’t get ambushed.”

Jaune and Harl pressed their backs toward one another and began to slowly move southwest toward where the Grimm were supposedly seen. Both Hunters kept their eyes peeled around the dark corners of the buildings and the rooftops for any Grimm lying in ambush.

Harl whispered to Jaune while keeping his eye on the scope of his gun, “I gotta tell ya, lad. I’ve been fightin’ Grimm a real long time, but I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Jaune whispered back, “Guess you never been to Beacon or Haven then…”

Harl whispered back, “Aye… I’m freelance. Never been to an Academy since graduation… Spent most of my years workin’ outside the Kingdoms helpin’ those who couldn’t afford anyone else. It was always small towns and homeless families, so I’ve never had to deal with somethin’ this intricate from the Grimm before.”

Harl paused before whispering again, “Strikin’ our food supply… Settin’ up ambushes for careless Hunters… Usin’ the mutilated bodies of our fallen for psychological warfare… Who do ya think is leadin’ this kind of attack?”

Jaune whispered back, “I’ve got a few ideas, but nothing completely makes sense yet. These Grimm seem a lot smarter, but they’re also attacking in broad daylight which… isn’t that smart.”

Harl whispered back, “That might be the point of it.”

Jaune glanced back for a moment, “Huh?”

Harl continued whispering, “You’ve been playing it cautious ever since ya started pulling the reins. If they attacked at night, it might be too obvious.”

Jaune went back to keeping his eyes peeled and whispering, “I guess that makes sense, but I still don’t get how this happ…”

Jaune suddenly saw a familiar looking little girl that wore a robe and had wings sticking out of her back. She was hovering in the sky in a seemingly carefree and relaxed manner about ten feet or so away from him. It was the Death Maiden from earlier that morning.

Jaune quietly, but bitterly said to her, “You…”

Despite how quiet Jaune was, the Death Maiden seemed to hear him since she turned her head to face him. Although the Death Maiden didn’t respond in any other way besides looking back at him, Jaune was still fueled with a silent rage. Was it her? Was she the one that was..?

Harl suddenly yelled out, “Beowulf!”

Jaune’s inner thoughts (and the narration) were both interrupted when Harl started shooting a Beowulf that was leaping from one of the rooftops right at Jaune. The bullets that struck the Beowulf’s body caused it to fall on its back just a foot short of Jaune. When it tried to get back up, Jaune quickly closed the distance and slashed the Beowulf through its throat with his sword and decapitated it.

After Jaune stepped back from the fallen Beowulf’s already-fading ‘corpse’, he looked back where he had just seen the Death Maiden. He was looking for another sign of her in the sky, but he couldn’t find anything.

Harl interrupted his thoughts again by tapping him on the arm, “Lad! I still need you watchin’ my back. Don’t go daydreamin’ on me now!”

Jaune stopped looking for the Death Maiden and nodded, “Oh. Uh… Sorry.”

Meanwhile, the Death Maiden was hovering over Kobe’s torn remains and silently watched Jaune as he was cautiously heading toward the village’s food supply with Harl.

She turned away from him and shook her head, “Idiot…”

She held out her right hand and an ebony-colored pole appeared in it. Immediately after that, a large curved gold-colored blade appeared on the opposite end of the pole through its side. The complete form of the Death Maiden’s weapon looked like a scythe with an unusual color combination.

Without warning, she swung her scythe through Kobe’s remains quickly and precisely while muttering, “Game over.”

There was no visible damage to Kobe’s body that was inflicted by the scythe (though he was already brutally killed in the first place), but the golden blade of the scythe now had what looked like a clear mist attached to it after swinging her scythe through Kobe’s body. She lifted her scythe back up and placed her left hand near the mist covered golden blade. The mist slowly left that part of the scythe as it drifted toward her hand. When all of this mist was in her hand, she gripped it tightly. There was a small burst of smoke in her left hand before any trace of this mist had vanished. Afterwards, she drifted away from Kobe’s body.

Both Jaune and Harl were oblivious to what the Death Maiden did to Kobe’s body and continued toward where the Grimm attacks were supposedly coming from. They were only about ten feet away from the area now and there were no Grimm in sight. Naturally, there were signs of Grimm attacks. Claw marks, broken windows, wooden debris, and bloodstains were to be seen everywhere, but there were no actual Grimm in the immediate vicinity. There were Hunters surrounding the area, though. Some of these Hunters were lying on the ground with visible wounds on their bodies, but at least the area was clearly secured.

Jaune ran toward one of the Huntresses that were already in the area. It was a Faunus about his age with white hair and white fox ears. It was Snow, the leader of Team SFRE.

Jaune questioned Snow for any information about the Grimm attack, “Give me a status report.”

Snow answered the question, “Captain. The remaining Grimm in the area have already fled.”

Jaune was puzzled, “Fled? Wait… They just ran away?”

Snow nodded and had a frown on her face, “Yes. Unfortunately… Our food supply…”

Jaune interrupted her, “Yea, I know. The Grimm were attacking from this area. How is our..?”

Jaune stopped his question immediately when he saw the state of the larder. Most of the food inside was reduced to ashes! It was as if somebody had set it all on fire!

Jaune’s jaw dropped at the sight of this, while Snow continued piling on more bad news, “There’s more. Most of our crops were destroyed in the attack along with our food. And then they just ran…”

Jaune already had his suspicions earlier, but this had confirmed them, “Because this was what they were after from the beginning… This wasn’t a normal Grimm attack! Somehow, they knew we would have plans to evacuate everyone that lived here, so they attacked our food instead! They’re not trying to face us in battle! They want us all to starve to death… slowly.”

Everyone was silent for a moment before Jaune broke the silence, “How much food do we have left?”

Snow swallowed a bit before answering, “Well, if Flora wasn’t exaggerating… A couple weeks worth…”

Jaune felt like a bomb just dropped inside him, “And without any crops left… Crap…”

Snow was understandably anxious about all of this, “How did the Grimm get so smart?”

Harl answered her question, “Aye! There’s a good chance that there’s a leader in this attack, lass. Question is… who?”

Jaune was already stressed out as it is, but there was something that caught the corner of his eye which didn’t help him. Then again, it may have answered the question as to who it was that was leading these attacks. He saw the Death Maiden hovering over the ground very close to him and moving toward Genta, one of the Hunters that was gravely wounded in the attack.

When he did, he lost what little restraint he had left, “You!”

The Death Maiden seemed to ignore him at first and moved closer to the fallen Hunter, while Jaune ran straight at her, “You did this!”

The Death Maiden turned to face him with a confused look on her face, “I did what now?”

Jaune lashed out at her, “Don’t act stupid! It was you!”

Harl seemed confused at what Jaune was doing, “Lad, who’re ya yellin’ to?”

Jaune pointed at the Death Maiden, “It was her. She’s leading the Grimm!”

The Death Maiden answered bluntly, “No, I’m not.”

Snow also seemed confused, “So… Who are you pointing at?”

Jaune started yelling, “She’s right here! You can see her!”

Snow was still confused, “Who?”

Jaune was starting to freak out and looked back and forth between Harl, Snow, and the Death Maiden, “Uh… She’s…”

The Death Maiden interrupted Jaune’s embarrassing response, “Yea, idiot. Who?”

This was ridiculous! The Death Maiden was right there next to him, and nobody else could even see or hear her at all! It was like she was…

The Death Maiden interrupted Jaune’s thoughts (and the narration), “Invisible to the mortal eye? Yea, it’s kinda hard to get my work done if mortals could see me. Speaking of work, I’m working! Stop bothering me, idiot!”

Jaune tried to grab the Death Maiden, “You’re gonna pay… for every…”

Jaune stopped when he realized that his hands went right through her like she was made of air, “Wha..?”

The Death Maiden ignored him and summoned her black and gold scythe in her hand again.

When Jaune saw the weapon in her hand and her eyes facing Genta, he grew horrified, “What are you doing?”

The Death Maiden continued to ignore him and readied her scythe, “Game over.”

She swung her scythe through Genta so quickly, which infuriated Jaune. In response, he unsheathed his sword and attempted to stab her, but the Death Maiden had instantly vanished before the blade even touched her.

Harl, Snow, and all of the other surviving Hunters in the vicinity were silently staring at Jaune. When Jaune noticed this, he kept trying to justify what he was doing, “I swear… There’s this little girl! She says she’s a Maiden! Genta… She… She just…”

Snow interrupted him, “Captain! A Beowulf did that to her, and I already killed it.”

Jaune was continuing to freak out, “I’m not going crazy! I… You… You just can’t see her!”

Snow was staring at him awkwardly, “But… you can?”

Jaune was at a loss for words. For about ten seconds, all he could speak was gibberish. After that, Jaune’s legs had suddenly started to quiver and his arms started to bend inward uncontrollably. He collapsed on his knees while the rest of his body started shaking uncontrollably. Harl and Snow ran to him to try to help, but to no avail. Jaune kept twitching until his left eye suddenly turned green!

When it did, it was as if something else was struggling to speak through his lips, “Wha... ha… ping… me…”

After this bizarre struggle, Jaune fell limp and he lost consciousness.


	4. Nightmares of the Past and Future

The sights and sensations around him were so frightening and vivid… Jaune was standing in the arena at Amity Colosseum and saw a girl with short, curly orange hair and green outlines standing in front of him.

He could hear a very familiar voice speaking as if it were in his mind, “ _Penny? Is that Penny?_ ”

Jaune couldn’t move or speak. He felt so numb and his mind was so muddled. He could swear he heard this voice from somewhere before, but where?  Suddenly, wires started wrapping themselves around this girl tightly…

Jaune could feel the fear in his heart when the voice started pleading, “ _No… No! Please… someone save her!_ ”

The wires started to pull the girl back from all directions, causing her arms and legs to spread wide until she started to slowly be torn apart.

The fear in his heart turn into hopeless terror when the voice starting screaming, “ _Not again! Please! Somebody! Anybody! **Make it stop!**_ ”

The wires continue to tear the girl apart until she was completely in pieces. Instead of blood, there was exposed wiring and electricity sparking from the remains, and the girl’s once green pupils turned dark and lifeless. When it was clear that the girl was dead, the sounds of a spectating crowd reacting in fright could be heard all around him.

The feeling of hopeless terror became so overwhelming that it turned into broken sadness when the voice started sobbing, “ _I… I didn’t mean to… I didn’t mean to kill her… Please… make it stop… I… I’m… so… sorry…_ ”

The fragmented pieces of the mechanical girl started to twist and contort before putting themselves back together in a hideous humanlike shape. The girl’s right arm was sticking out where her head should be, and the girl’s left arm was where her right leg should be. The girl’s right leg was where her right arm should be, and the girl’s head was where her left arm should be. This twisted form of a girl shuffled slowly toward Jaune, but he still couldn’t move.

As she got closer, the girl’s eye started twitching and her mouth curled into an insane smile as she spoke in a monotone voice, “Salutations.”

That same voice in his mind reacted to the sight of this, “ _Penny?_ ”

The girl kept hobbling closer and spoke in a monotone voice again, “Salutations.”

The feeling of broken sadness within Jaune was renewed again when the voice started yelling, “ _Penny! I’m so sorry!_ ”

The girl stopped when she was mere inches from Jaune. Without warning, the right arm that was attached to her neck curled downward, grabbed her head, and ripped it off of her left arm socket.

She held her own head out and presented it to Jaune by pressing it toward his face and speaking in a monotone voice, “Salutations.”

Even in this state of paralysis and silence, the anguish that Jaune was going through was becoming physically painful when the voice within him started pleading, “ _It was an accident! Please… Please forgive me for what I’ve done to you!_ ”

The girl’s left arm that was attached to her right leg socket curled upward and grabbed her head. With both hands clutching her head, her fingers started to dig into her own skin, right in front of Jaune. The manic expression on her face was unchanging, even as she ripped her own skin off of her face, revealing the mechanical insides of her skull. After that grisly scene, the mechanical girl fell into pieces again.

A wicked, yet honey-filled voice echoed around Jaune, “This is **not** a tragedy. This was **not** an accident. This is what happens when you hand over your trust, your safety, your children, to men who claim to be our guardians, but are, in reality, nothing more than men.”

The voice within Jaune was completely hopeless and broken, “ _Is this… my punishment? To be burdened by my failures… even in death? **Was this my destiny?**_ ”

Even though these feelings of hopeless weren’t his own, Jaune’s feelings were starting to match that of the voice, as if they were slowly and uncontrollably becoming a single person. His body started twitching erratically as the sense of numbness started to fade. Everything around him slowly became blurry, and eventually faded into black.

Just like last night, Jaune woke up out of another nightmare, gasping for breath, as if something had been suffocating him. He was back at the Higanbana Inn’s bed again. At first, Jaune felt a solemn relief, but when he tried to get up out of bed, his body felt unusually heavy. When he rolled over to his side and twisted his arms underneath him to push himself up, a terrible pain began to course through his arms and shoulders.

Jaune heard the same voice in his dream whispering in his mind, “ _Wh… Where… am I..?_ ”

This voice caused Jaune to experience a very painful headache, which in turn caused him to collapse back on his bed, grunting in pain.

That same voice became much clearer in his mind, “ _That voice… It… No, it couldn’t…_ ”

As the voice was becoming clearer, the headache started to recede a bit, but when he pulled himself back up, he began feeling nauseous and dizzy.

When Jaune grunted in pain again, the voice in his mind reacted again, “ _There it is again..._ ”

Jaune crouched down on the bed with his head in his legs when his headache flared again, and grunted in pain again.

The voice in his mind finally shouted, “ _Jaune? **Is it really you?! Jaune?!**_ ”

Jaune tried to respond to this voice, but all that came out of his mouth was, “Ugh… Pyrr…”, before he felt the sudden urge to vomit.

“ _Where are you? Jaune? I… I can’t see._ ”

Jaune tried to pull himself off of the bed and on his feet and briefly succeeded, but he soon collapsed on the floor when he let go of the bed. The impact also caused his own shield, which was placed on the wall next to the bed, to fall on his face. It was difficult for him to even move his arms with any precision, but he slowly reached toward his face and rolled over as he pushed the shield off his face.

When he caught a glimpse of his reflection in the shield, the other voice reacted, “ _Jaune! I… I can see you! I see your face! Wh… what’s happened to you? Jaune!_ ”

Jaune was horrified by the sight of his own reflection. The left side of his face was red and filled with blisters, and there were veins bulging underneath his left eye!  He slowly moved his hand toward that part of his face and pressed on his cheek, which caused a burning pain to course through his face. After quickly flinching from the pain, he quickly moved his hand away and took a closer look at his left eye. It was red and bloodshot, but the pupil in his eye was emerald green! It was just like looking at… her eye. The gravity of his situation had finally set in. The Death Maiden’s warning was very real and Jaune’s inner sense of fear was palpable.

His whole body started shivering, and he uttered one word, “Pyrrha...”

Her voice resonated from within his mind, “ _Jaune…_ ”

Jaune slowly pressed his hand on the reflection of the shield, as if he was touching her hand again since the Fall of Beacon.

A little girl’s voice interrupted the moment between Jaune and his… shield, “Are you two busy over there? We need to talk.”

Jaune slowly turned around and saw the Death Maiden ‘standing’ sideways with her feet on the wall, staring at him with her arms crossed. When he did, he attempted to stand and reacted with anger, “You…”

Jaune was still suffering from physical pain, and collapsed when he tried to stand up. The Death Maiden was completely nonchalant to his suffering, “You know, I don’t show myself to a lot of mortals, but when I do, I usually have a good reason. Well? Do you believe me now? You’ve still got about eight to ten months to…”

Although he struggled to speak, Jaune interrupted her, “What… did you…”

The Death Maiden paused for a moment before Jaune yelled at her, “What did you do?! **What did you do to Pyrrha?!** ”

Her voice reacted within his mind again, “ _What did she… do to me?_ ”

With a huff, the Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the ceiling, walking upside-down, “As far as mortals go, you really are stupid! When you find something that you can’t explain, you just find someone to pin the blame on! First, you blame me for the Grimm attack on this village, and now you want to blame me for putting a piece of that girl’s soul in your body?”

The Death Maiden’s eyes turned golden, “And this is even after I just came to you last night and told you everything… **everything** from the **start**!”

Her voice was trembling with fear, “ _My… my soul?_ ”

The Death Maiden calmed down a bit, “Yes, girl… Your soul… That’s right! I can see into mortal minds. I can hear you in there. Oh, um… don’t try to talk to anyone except this… **idiot** … that I’m looking at! Nobody else is going to hear you from in there.”

“ _But… how did I..? Why am I..?_ ”

The Death Maiden interrupted her, “What? Why do you have a piece of your soul lodged in this idiot’s teeny-tiny mortal brain? Because **you** put it in there, that’s why! Think way back to your Beacon days… Like… if you were to make those Beacon days into a book, then I’d say as far back as Volume 1.”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the floor next to Jaune, and then started pacing in a circle, “First day of Beacon Academy… Emerald Forest… You find this idiot stuck in a tree. He doesn’t know what Aura is. Protect thee by the shoulder… or something. Yadda yadda yadda…”

The Death Maiden had suddenly pointed at Jaune and declared dramatically, “You used your Aura to unlock his! You know… The manifestation of your soul… What happened next..? Oh yeah… You got a little tired and said something like ‘he has a lot of Aura’, right?”

Her voice started stuttering, “ _How do you..?_ ”

The Death Maiden interrupted her by making a sound effect that sounds like a buzzer, “ **EEEEH!** **Wrong!** The reason that you got tired was because you ended up lodging a piece of your own soul in him! Since then, he’s been changing very slowly from the inside out. For a while, there weren’t any real side effects, but the more that piece of you stayed in him, the more he changed. This mortal’s body isn’t anything like the Pinecone’s! His body wasn’t **meant** to carry other souls! It’s like trying to plug a light bulb into a busted-up Scroll… It doesn’t work.”

The Death Maiden pulled out a small mirror from her robe and put it in front of Jaune’s face, “Here we have what I like to call… Exhibit A. See his face? That’s just the start! The rest of him is going to start deteriorating if he doesn’t get rid of that piece of you! Get it now? Your own soul is killing him!”

Her voice was quiet, but sounded completely horrified, “ _What?_ ”

The Death Maiden put the mirror back in her robe and grabbed Jaune with one hand, effortlessly picking him up off of the floor and dropping him on the bed before speaking again, “You see, my role in this game is to collect the souls of the dead. I already picked up the rest of you when you died, but I can’t get this piece of you out without killing this… idiot. Now, I don’t usually do favors for mortals, but I felt a bit generous last night. Well, that and I can’t directly interfere with mortal affairs. Instead of just killing him, I gave him one of my Soulstones and the chance to take back his own life. ‘Go to Beacon’, I said. ‘Find that, uh… Aura transfery thingy’, I said. ‘Use the Aura transfery thingy with the Soulstone’, I said. But, nooooooo… He didn’t make any preparations to do that, so maybe if he has a second opinion, then he’ll change his mind.”

The Death Maiden’s eyes turned golden again, “Because if he doesn’t, then that piece of your soul will be stuck to his, and when he dies, I’ll be the one stuck with one soul with an extra piece and one soul that’s missing a piece.”

Jaune tried to get off of the bed, “Wait… I…”

The Death Maiden interrupted him again, “Please withhold all questions until the end of the ride. Thank you!”

The Death Maiden flung out a long chain from inside of her robe, and it somehow wrapped itself around Jaune, tying his arms and chest to the bed very tightly. He struggled to free himself from these chains, but his current physical state made this struggle futile.

The Death Maiden hovered above Jaune and grabbed his cheeks with both hands and spoke to him like he was a baby, “Aww… Who’s a widdle mordal? Who is? You is!”

She let go of Jaune’s cheeks and spoke to him normally, “Relax. I’m just giving you a little sneak peek of the future you’ll face if you don’t take that soul fragment out of you. When I’m done, I’ll leave you alone.”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on the wall behind Jaune, grabbed his face with both hands, and stared into his eyes with glowing golden eyes of her own. Jaune could feel his own thoughts twist beyond his control, and started to struggle again! This maiden was doing... something to his own mind, and he was helpless to do anything about it!

Jaune’s own eyesight started to fade, and was eventually replaced by darkness as he could hear the Death Maiden’s voice singing softly over his head, “There’s no earthly way of knowing… which direction they are going.”

An influx of colors and shapes clouded Jaune’s thoughts as she kept singing, “There's no knowing where they're rowing… or which way the river's flowing.”

The colors and shapes in his mind started swirling like a cyclone was shuffling his own thoughts and memories as she kept singing, “Is it raining? Is it snowing? Is a hurricane a-blowing?”

The swirling in his mind stopped as the colors and shapes in his mind were mixed into a dense fog as the Death Maiden spoke softly, “Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing.”

The fog in his mind had burst into flames as she raised her voice, “Are the fires of Hell a-glowing?”

A figure that resembled the wicked demon in his dreams had emerged from the flames as the Death Maiden’s voice erupted in his mind, “Is the grisly Reaper mowing?”

The shadows around the wicked demon had dispersed, but the true form of the demon didn’t look like a Pyrrha or a Grimm. Off all people, it was the form of Cinder Fall herself that was within Jaune’s own mind! The eyes of ‘Cinder’ were glowing in a burning yellow as flames erupted all around her.

The frightening imagery was finally complete when the Death Maiden shouted, “ **Yes!** ”

The ‘Cinder’ in his mind exploded into a tempest of fire and hate that was vivid enough for Jaune to actually feel his flesh burn! He put up another struggle, whimpering in pain, as the Death Maiden’s voice pierced his very soul, “ **The danger must be growing, ‘cuz the rowers keep on rowing!** ”

The face of ‘Cinder’ burnt into ashes, revealing the face of a monster unlike any Grimm that Jaune had ever seen.  It had a four-lipped mouth and pointed teeth that opened sideways! When this monster roared, the Death Maiden’s voice pierced him again, “ **And they're certainly not showing..!** ”

Flames burst out of the monster’s gaping mouth until they completely consumed Jaune’s thoughts, while the Death Maiden’s voice pierced his soul yet again, “ **Any sign that they are slowing!** ”

The pain that Jaune felt throughout the ordeal was now so vivid, that his once quiet whimpering turned into full-blown screaming! The Death Maiden’s voice joined his screaming with an inhuman shriek of her own! The rest of Jaune’s body twitched constantly, like it was being subject to agonizing torture! It was as if the very fabric of Jaune’s consciousness was being changed… no, **violated** by someone else! The flames in his mind flickered three times, and he saw something different every time they did. First, he saw an image of Pyrrha weeping in despair. Next, he saw an image of a glowing angel with pieces of metal protruding out of its back to resemble wings. Finally, he saw a man strapped to a burning stake, screaming in agony as he roasted to death!

When the last image faded, the entire ordeal had come to an abrupt end. Everything was quiet and his mind was clear. His body was no longer in pain, and he was mostly unaware of not only his surroundings, but his own sense of self.

Before Jaune fell into the realm of deep unconsciousness, he heard Pyrrha’s voice echoing within his mind once again, “ _No… This… this is wrong. There has to be something I can do… and yet, I remain powerless. It doesn’t make sense. None of it makes sense! This isn’t how things were supposed to happen! Is… is Jaune meant to share my fate? Why? How can destiny… be so cruel?_ ”


	5. The Cold Shoulder

There were no nightmares, no nausea, and no pain. There was only a cold, but gentle numbness permeating through Jaune’s entire body. When he pulled himself out of bed, he noticed that it was already dark. After that terrible Grimm attack in the village and the destruction of most of the village’s food supply, the remaining hopes of every Hunter and noncombatant would surely have plummeted. After those thoughts went through his mind, the inner numbness turned into an icy sense of guilt and failure. As a leader, he should have been the one to rally these poor people up, but instead… Instead, he just slept through the rest of the day. No… Not ‘slept’… He couldn’t deny the truth any more. As cruel and unhelpful as that Death Maiden seemed, she never lied to him. Not once… This piece of the soul that resided within him… Pyrrha’s soul… was incredibly debilitating to Jaune’s physical and mental state. That’s the truth, and he had to accept it.

Jaune looked at his reflection on his shield to confirm his newfound acceptance. Even though he wasn’t in pain right now, the blisters didn’t go away. The sight of his disheveled face caused him to cover his blisters purely out of reflex, as if he was covering a mark of shame. After he realized that he wasted enough time unconscious in bed, and shouldn’t be wasting more by staring at his shield, he carried his sword and shield with him, and walked out the door of the Higanbana Inn. The sight of the village around him had only amplified the shame he felt earlier. There were claw marks all over the buildings, Grimm footprints all over the dirt, and shredded crops all over the fields. All of these Hunters working together… but it still wasn’t enough. They should’ve been able to stop this Grimm attack, but how could anybody have expected such clever tactics? Of all people, he should’ve known better, but…

A voice in Jaune’s mind interrupted his self-pity, “ _Jaune?_ ”

Jaune’s vision became clouded for a brief moment when he heard her voice. It was as if he was going to have another headache. How ironic that the very voice that gave him such comfort and hope in the past was now bringing him so low…

Her voice went through his mind again, “ _Jaune? Can you hear me?_ ”

Jaune clutched his head and responded, “Yea…”

Pyrrha’s voice waited until Jaune stopped clutching his head, “ _How are you handling all of this?_ ”

Jaune didn’t know how to respond, but noticed some of the night patrols around the village. At least, things were still somewhat organized…

Her voice continued to resonate through his mind, “ _Jaune… I… There’s so much I want to say. So much I wish I could do… I… I just…_ ”

Jaune interrupted the voice in his head with a monotone response, “I’m so tired.”

Her voice sounded hesitant to say anything, “ _I can tell. You’ve changed so much since my… death. I can feel so much sorrow from within you now. It’s as if…_ ”

Jaune interrupted the voice in his head, “We’re slowly merging into the same person? Yea… I know.”

After another brief pause, her voice resonated within his mind again, “ _You don’t seem surprised._ ”

Jaune’s mood fell even lower, “Why should I be?”

“ _What?_ ”

Jaune curled his fists and spoke with a manic tone, “I said… **Why should I be?** Think about it! Every time I try to sleep, I start having nightmares of… horrible things that have happened… to you.  Sometimes I see Penny getting ripped apart by your polarity Semblance and sometimes I see myself getting shot in the heart by Cinder... and… and everything in those nightmares feels so real! I… I could swear that a little bit of that pain actually comes with me every time I wake up! And that was just the start… because just this afternoon, a pack of Grimm destroyed most of the food in this village in what’s probably **the** most organized Grimm attack I’ve ever seen! I… I just watched a Beowulf fling the bloody entrails of my friend, Kobe, straight at me! I… I really thought I was going to puke! Maybe I’ll be called ‘Vomit Boy’ again? I don’t know! Oh, and then I’m constantly getting told what to do by this… **annoying** little girl with wings! She tells me that I’m gonna **die** if I don’t make some spur-of-the-moment journey to the wreckage that used to be Beacon Academy… and guess what? Nobody else can see her, so everyone thinks I’m just going crazy! I start feeling like I’m getting sick every time I get frustrated, and I get so frustrated because I keep feeling like I’m getting sick! I… I actually think I’m starting to get… seizures! It happened to me **twice** , and I swear I saw you in my thoughts both times! And on top of all of that, this side of my face now looks like I stuck it up an Ursa’s mouth with a lit match, so the fact that I can now **suddenly** hear your voice in my head just like that Oscar-Ozpin thing… So what..? Why should I be surprised? What else is new? I can’t possibly be any **more** messed up than I am right now!”

Jaune was quickly inhaling and exhaling after that long rant, while muttering to himself, “I… I need to worry about our food right now! Let’s see… We still got a couple weeks worth of food left, and a caravan travels through Higanbana every four days or so… Maybe we can work something out with them… Have some Hunters defend their patrols in exchange for food until we plant some new crops… I don’t know. Something like that. Ah! But first, I’ve got to check on everybody and make sure they’re not killing each other!”

After a moment of awkward silence, Pyrrha’s voice resonated within his mind again, “ _I… I see. Things really have changed for the worse, but I never imagined how much of a burden you had to carry._ ”

After another moment of awkward silence, her voice resonated again, “ _One moment… Who’s Oscar?_ ”

Jaune was brought out of his manic frustration for a brief moment, “O-oh… He’s…”

Before he had a chance to explain who Oscar was, he heard Desmond’s voice call out to him, “Jay?”

Jaune nonchalantly greeted him, “Oh. Hey there, Des.”

Desmond looked like he was about to say something, but reacted with shock, “Holy crap! **Jay?!** What happened to your face?! It’s…”

Jaune snapped at Desmond, “ **I know!** ”

Desmond was startled by Jaune’s sudden reaction and stared at him silently until Jaune calmed down and apologized, “I’m sorry. Des… It… it’s not you, I just…”

Desmond grabbed Jaune by the shoulders and gave him a ‘bro hug’ while patting him on the back, “Yea, I hear you, Jay. You’ve had it rough... well, rougher than a lot of us, anyway. Sure, a lot of us went through the fall of an Academy, but you’ve gone through that twice… and…”

Jaune left Desmond’s ‘bro hug’ with a quick mutter, “Please don’t bring that up. Not now…”

Desmond gritted his teeth and had an awkward expression, “Uh… right. Jay, do you remember why you were elected as Captain?”

Jaune had easily remembered every reason like he was reading it directly from a scroll, “Because I somehow survived the fall of two different Academies when I should have been dead at least sixteen times by now… Because I’m the latest descendant of the famous Arc name and haven’t been able to live up to that name for more than three minutes at any time… Because ‘tactics’ are one of the few things I’ve ever been praised for despite the fact that I really just depend on everybody else to do what I tell them to… Nope. No clue.”

Desmond thought aloud to himself, “You know… Now that I think about it, I don’t think ‘elected’ is the right word. Elections aren’t really for captains. They’re mostly for mayors or politicians or…”

Jaune stared at Desmond with a bored expression, “Des, I really don’t have time for this. I need to go check on everybody...”, and then Jaune’s expression changed into one of fear, “And find out how many of them are still alive.”

When Jaune went to leave, Desmond reached out to him with his arm, “Uh… Yea, you might not want to do that right now. You see, most of the villagers here have been… Oh, what’s the word..?”

Jaune didn’t even turn around to look back at Desmond when he responded, “Panicking? It’s called ‘low morale’.”

Desmond nodded, “Yea. And they think that everything you’ve went through… Everything that just happened today… They think it’s all taking its toll on you and…”

Jaune had a look of despair on his face as he interrupted, “They think I’ve gone insane…”

Desmond paused for a moment before answering, “Well, not ‘insane’, but…”

Jaune glared at Desmond as he interrupted him again, “But what..?”

Desmond stared at the blistered side of Jaune’s face, “After those Grimm bailed out of the village, a lot of people have been watching you. They say you’ve been… yelling at someone who wasn’t there.”

Jaune paused for a moment as he clenched his fists, “She **was** there!”

Desmond had a look of worry on his face, “Who is ‘she’?”

Jaune paused and contemplated something to himself before answering, “She… she calls herself the ‘Death Maiden’.”

Despite his disbelief, Desmond was noticeably intrigued, “A Maiden? You mean like a Seasonal Maiden?”

Jaune was intrigued himself, due to the fact that Desmond knew what the Maidens were, “Huh. I don’t recall ever bringing them up around you… but no. No, this Death Maiden… is nothing like the four Seasonal Maidens. She’s… she’s not human. I don’t know exactly what she’s supposed to be! She says she’s part of the… ‘First Race’… whatever that is, a-and I’m the only one that can see… and hear her…”

Desmond clearly still didn’t believe Jaune, “And you think this ‘Death Maiden’ is doing all of this? The Grimm attacks..? Your eye being all green..? Your face looking like… you kissed a belt sander..?”

Jaune glared at Desmond again when he mentioned his face, and Desmond responded by silently gritting his teeth in a pitiful open smile. Jaune just let Desmond’s stupid response slide, “Well… not exactly ‘all’ of this. I… don’t know who is controlling the Grimm, **if** anybody is controlling them at all… I just think there’s a good chance of it. And my face..? Look, you’re going to think I’m crazy if I…”

Jaune noticed the confused look on Desmond’s face and realized that he didn’t have anything to lose at this point, “You know what? You already **do** think I’m crazy by now. Everybody else does… Okay. When I was still in Beacon, I had this… friend. She… died… when Beacon fell. She just… threw her life away, but after she died, a piece of her… it stayed behind. A piece of her soul is stuck in my mind! I can hear her voice! I can feel what she feels! And… the longer she’s stuck in my mind, the more messed up I get!”

Jaune clutched his head as he continued explaining, “I… I can feel my thoughts… changing. Those nightmares that I’ve been having… Those were traumatic experiences that **she** went through before she died! And that was just the start! Now, she can actually speak to me in my mind and… I… I didn’t feel like this when I first got here. I mean… I’m still me… but at the same time, I’m not me.”

Desmond was visibly struggling to make sense of what Jaune was saying, “So… you have some kind of Split Personality Disorder?”

Jaune gritted his teeth in anger when Desmond tried to make it all out as something mundane, but let it go, “Uh… You know what? You’re actually not that far off, but I don’t have a ‘split’ personality. It’s more like another person’s thoughts and memories are… ‘merging’ with mine… and the more we merge, the more my body falls apart!”

Jaune’s voice became very fearful, “Des, it’s getting worse. At first, it was just nightmares, but now there have been times when my arms and legs just go numb… and I can’t stop shaking! And now…”, and then Jaune pointed at the blisters on his face and yelled, “Just **look** at me!”

Neither of them said anything for about ten seconds before Desmond broke the awkward silence, “Uh… Wow. You know, I… learned a few things about medicine before I was enlisted to Haven. I mean, my mom was a doctor and you already knew that, but… a personality disorder with physical side effects along with psychological ones? I’ve **never** heard of anything like that… ever. I wouldn’t know where to begin.”

Jaune shook his head and huffed, “Forget it. Look, please just do me a favor and don’t bring it up to anyone else right now. Okay? If everybody really thinks I’m losing my mind, then things will just get worse if this gets out. The Grimm feed on negativity, remember? It’s just better to wait until things get better first before bringing it up… **if** things get better.”

Jaune walked away from Desmond at a brisk pace without waiting for him to respond and Desmond stared at Jaune incredulously.

When he was out of earshot from Desmond, Pyrrha’s voice resonated within Jaune’s mind again, “ _Jaune? Why are you keeping him in the dark like that?_ ”

Jaune stopped for a moment without responding, but her voice didn’t relent, “ _From what I can tell, he just wants to help. He is your friend, right?_ ”

Jaune instantly responded to that, “Of course he is. I just… What could he do to help me? And don’t say ‘special herbs’.”

“ _Special herbs?_ ”

Jaune realized for a moment that very few people other than Desmond and himself actually knew about that, “Oh, right. Desmond is pretty good with growing crops and herbs, and he knows a few things about medicine. He grows these ‘special herbs’… According to him, they’re supposed to relieve stress when you smoke them, but they also dull the brain and reflexes. They’re basically drugs, but I need my mind and body to be sharp right now.”

Her voice went through his mind again, “ _I see. You must be very close to him to know that… which is why I find it odd that you won’t tell him about the Soulstone._ ”

Jaune was taken aback for a second, but started to walk again while clutching his head, “Do you have any idea how far Beacon is from here? I can’t make a trip that long.”

Her voice went through his mind again, “ _Perhaps not by yourself, but you have friends that are willing to help you. And it’s not just him… There’s everyone you met at Beacon. Ren, Nora, Ruby…_ ”

Jaune interrupted with a hint of despair, “I’ve lost contact with them all after Haven fell.”

Her voice went through his mind again, “ _Haven? Don’t you mean Beacon Academy?_ ”

Jaune struggled to keep tears from falling from his eyes, “No. I got separated from everybody else… again. I was on some assignment outside of Haven when it happened… and… I don’t have any clue where they are… or if they’re even alive. I… I’ve been watching over this village ever since. I thought if this place held out long enough, then word would get around and… But now, the Grimm just attacked and most of our food is gone and…”

Her voice was slowly filling with despair that Jaune intimately felt when it went through his mind, “ _I… didn’t know. So that’s why… you put so much on yourself. But… this isn’t going to help you. You say that your mind and body needs to be sharp, but they’re both deteriorating… because… of me. I think it would be better… in the long run if you followed the Death Maiden’s instructions._ ”

Jaune was growing irritated, “I just told you. It would take way too long to go all the way to Beacon and back. This place might burn to the ground by the time I get back.”

Pyrrha’s voice was continuing to fill with despair as it went through his mind again, “ _Do you really have a choice?_ ”

Jaune’s irritation was turning into bitterness, “Yea, I have a choice. I’m choosing not to just go and leave **everybody**!”

There was a momentary pause before her voice went through his mind again, “ _Jaune? You’ve become bitter toward me._ ”

Jaune stopped walking for a moment as her voice continued, “ _I can tell. As we are now, our souls are linked, so we get the occasional glimpse in each other’s minds. All of your thoughts were focused on me when you said that. You’ve become bitter… when I ‘threw my life away’._ ”

Jaune’s eyes widened as the despair in her voice was turning into sorrow, “ _Those were your words. Jaune… Whatever way you feel toward me right now… I just want you to know… that I still care about you. So please…_ ”

Jaune gritted his teeth and quietly spoke in anger, “Don’t you dare…”

Her sorrow filled voice went through his mind again, “ _I’m so worried about you! About what’s happening to you… because of me…_ ”

Jaune’s anger and audibility grew, “Don’t you dare go there…”

Her voice continued to ‘go there’, “ _Jaune! This part of me… my soul… is killing you! I’m watching you slowly die through your eyes and… I feel so helpless! Please! I know it’s selfish, but I could never forgive myself if you died because of me!_ ”

Jaune lost his temper instantly, “ **Pyrrha!** ”

Her voice responded with confusion, “ _Jaune?_ ”

Jaune now experienced a bitterness that he’s never felt before, “What right… do **you** have?”

Her voice was still confused, “ _I… I don’t understand._ ”

Jaune verbally lashed out without restraint, “What right do you have to say something like that?! To say that ‘you’re helpless’... **now** after everything that’s happened?!”

Pyrrha’s voice was filled with both sorrow and anger to the point that Jaune could feel it brooding within him, _Of course I am! Why shouldn’t I be scared for you?! Jaune! Tell me! If I shouldn’t be worried about you, then how do you **think** I should feel?_ ”

Jaune yelled out in rage, “ **How do you think I felt when you shoved me in that locker and committed GLORIFIED SUICIDE?!** ”

The anger in her voice completely and instantly faltered, “ _I…_ ”

Jaune continued to rant like a lunatic, “ **Ooooh! You’re so helpless! You’re so scared! You know what? So was I! I was scared for you and you didn’t even care!** ”

Jaune could feel the sorrow creeping through him as her voice stuttered, “ _J-Jaune… I’m…_ ”

Jaune ranted even more without holding back, “ **And for what?! What did you think was going to happen?! What were you going to accomplish by facing Cinder alone… and dying… and leaving EVERYBODY BEHIND?! ANSWER ME, YOU GODDAMN HYPOCRITE!** ”

Jaune suddenly collapsed because of the amount of stress on his body and mind. The rage that briefly consumed him was now overcome with so much sorrow. He could actually hear and feel her weeping from within him. It was Pyrrha’s sorrow.

Jaune struggled to even say anything, let alone get up, “Pyrrha… Wait… I…”

Her voice sounded so heartbroken when it went through his mind, “ _Jaune…_ ”

Jaune stopped and waited as if hearing her voice was the only thing that mattered.

After a few more painful seconds, he heard her voice in the most heartbroken tone he’s ever heard, “ _I’m sorry…_ ”

Jaune desperately tried to remedy his mistake, “Pyrrha? Please say something to me! I just lost it back there! I didn’t mean to…”

Before Jaune finished his sentence, he noticed the reflection of his face on his shoulder. Both of his eyes were blue. It was as if she couldn’t bear to speak to him right now, and it was his fault. Jaune vented his frustration and guilt on the ground, punching it repeatedly with his right hand as he clutched his head with his left.


	6. Losing a Little More Dignity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter has spoilers for RWBY Volume 5, Chapter 12 (which just came on in the same day in which this chapter was finished.)

**Warning: This chapter has spoilers for RWBY Volume 5, Chapter 12 (which just came on in the same day in which this chapter was finished.)**

Many of the villagers were squatting in a cramped, cold, and metal bunker that was built under the ground next to what was left of Higanbana. Some of these villagers were here because they lost their homes from the Grimm attack that took place earlier today. Despite how short the attack lasted and how abruptly that it ended, the damage that was done was very high and the suffering was very real. In fact, it might be possible that a single attack caused so much pain **because** of how abrupt it was… because it shows that most of the Grimm haven’t been eliminated when they fled. They’re still out there… and everyone knows it. That sense of fear leads to the very hate and despair that the Grimm prey upon.

While some of the villagers holed up in this bunker have legitimately lost their homes, friends, or even their loves ones, the majority of them are simply hiding down there out of fear. The fear of death, sorrow, and pain drew them to this place like a magnet and the misery of each individual down there spread from one person to the next like a pandemic. That misery is more than enough to attract the Grimm again, and everyone knew it. That knowledge would then lead to more fear, which would lead to more misery, and so on… like an unending cycle of grief.

To make an already terrible situation worse, this grief is now responsible for turning some of the villagers against one another! One example lies with three middle-aged men who are in the middle of a fierce verbal fight with one another. They were neither trained Hunters, nor did they have any military background. When the verbal clash escalated into something truly violent, most of the other villagers within the bunker were apathetic to the scene, with only the children watching and screaming in fear.

Before the first blow was struck, the door leading outside was opened, causing some of the villagers inside the bunker to react with fright. That fright vanished almost immediately when they realized that it wasn’t a Grimm that opened the door, but a young man with a blistered face and a weary expression. These people were staring at Jaune and he was staring back at them like someone that had stage fright looking at an audience. He was at a loss for words considering everything that just happened. This did nothing to deter the three men from their petty squabble, but Jaune didn’t notice the fighting right away.

Jaune took a deep breath before speaking to the crowd of cowering villagers, “Everybody… If I could get your attention for just a minute, I…”

Jaune stopped momentarily to notice that most of the villagers were staring at him, “Well, I guess I already have your attention. Okay… I… I’m just going to go out and say it. We’re in a terrible position right now. The Grimm hit us hard, they’re still out there, and they could come out and finish us off at any time!”

Jaune stopped and mentally cursed himself for being too ‘forward’ about the situation when he saw the terrified faces of the children that were among the crowd of cowering villagers before attempting to speak again, “Okay… Maybe I should’ve lightened the mood a bit first before dropping that bomb… Uh… The point is that… Well… This is…”

Before Jaune had a chance to continue his completely ineloquent speech, he noticed the three men that were fighting in the back and yelled out to them, “Huh? Oh! Not this… Not now! What do you all think you’re doing?”

When one of the three men grew distracted by Jaune’s yelling and looked at him, another one took the chance to strike him in the face with a nearby shovel, knocking him out cold. The sight of a man’s face stained by his own blood caused Jaune to react by running toward the attacker and grabbing the shovel. After a brief struggle, Jaune pried the shovel out of the man’s hands and shoved him on the floor.

What little modesty that Jaune possessed had evaporated instantly as his teeth gritted with fury and glared at the downed attacker, while speaking with an icy tone of voice, “We… do **not** … fight amongst ourselves!”

Jaune looked at the third man who was neither bleeding nor on the floor, “Tell me right now! **What** is going on here?!”

The man pointed at the shovel in Jaune’s hands and had a quiet desperation in his voice, “I need that shovel.”

Jaune didn’t understand why the man was so desperate, “What?”

The man attempted to grab the shovel until Jaune kept him back by holding his other arm out, “Stop. Stop right now. What is going on here?”

The man complied and breathed heavily, “My… My daughter…”

Jaune ignored the smell of alcohol in the man’s breath and grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to make sense of this chaos, “Your daughter..?”

The man had suddenly burst into tears and started shaking, “They… killed her. I need…”

The man reached for the shovel again, while Jaune held it away, “No. That’s enough violence.”

The man kept crying and pleading, “I need to bury her! My daughter is…”

Before the man finished, the man that Jaune shoved earlier stood back up and went after Jaune while shouting, “My nephew is dead! Give it to me!”

Jaune held his shield out in front of the more aggressive man while the less aggressive (and not bleeding on the floor) man seized the opportunity to grab the shovel while Jaune’s attention was occupied. When Jaune noticed that the shovel was snatched out of his hand, the more aggressive man pushed Jaune aside and went after the other man, tackling him on the floor and wrestling over the shovel.

Despite the intense chaos, Jaune was able to piece the information together from what little was given. It’s extremely obvious how different this was from a Grimm attack or an act of terrorism. These men weren’t career criminals or terrorists. They were just grief-stricken survivors who had lost family. To make matters worse, there was only one shovel inside the bunker as it was simply left there during the construction of the bunker after the hole was dug. Out of fear of the Grimm, the three men refused to leave the bunker to search for other shovels. The emotional turmoil of these men was so great that they could not see the obvious conundrum of being incapable of even finding the remains of their fallen without leaving the underground bunker, let alone burying them.

From Jaune’s point of view, this whole situation was ridiculous beyond belief, but at the same time, this gave him a hint as to how these monsters really operate. These Grimm were much smarter than the ones he’s encountered before, and it shows. He remembered when Ruby’s uncle, Qrow, once told him about a great evil called ‘Salem’ that was trying to destroy humanity by dividing them apart, so that when it comes time to place the blame, they could only point at each other. This moment is a perfect example of such division.

Growing disgusted with these men and the apathetic reactions of the villagers around him, Jaune dragged himself up from the floor and ran toward the two men struggling with one another, pulled the more aggressive man off of the other one from behind, and threw him on the floor.

Afterwards, Jaune grabbed the shovel again and yelled at the two men like he was scolding bruised children, “Both of you! **Stop. Right.** **Now!** ”

Jaune pulled out the Scroll from his pocket with the intent to contact help, “To any available Hunters, I’ve got a Code Cardinal between two…”

Jaune noticed the man who was lying on the floor bleeding after having been hit by a shovel and reiterated, “No, three noncombatants from within the emergency bunker outside of the village. One of them has a bloody gash on his face. The other two are unharmed. I don’t want any more blood. Just bring some stun batons.”

Jaune kneeled over the wounded man and pressed his hands on his wound, healing his injuries with his Semblance. Before Jaune had a chance to finish, the more aggressive man from earlier snatched the shovel back and struck him in the face with it **hard**. The impact was enough to not only knock Jaune off his feet, but caused him to hear a ringing noise in his ears. When the attacker kicked him hard enough to flip Jaune on his back, he started suffering from a concussion, with blurred vision, but also seeing double of his attacker.

With nobody else interfering, Jaune’s attacker kept striking him with a shovel over after every bolded word, “You said we’d be **safe!** You said my **nephew** … would be **safe!** He was **five!** And now, he’s **dead!** We followed **you!** Everyone followed **you!** And **now…** we’re **all…** gonna **DIE!** ”

Jaune’s Aura sheltered him from the continued assault, but he was still lying on the floor, dazed, from the initial blow. At this rate, the rest of his Aura would be expended in seconds. The repeated blows made it difficult for Jaune to even left his shield arm, let alone defend himself from the assault.

His attacker stopped his assault for a moment to continue ranting, “There’s nothing left! **Nothing!** If we’re all gonna fucking die, then just **get it over with!** ”

The assault continued as the attacker kept striking Jaune with that shovel, though without technique or skill. The same pain and irrationality that caused this man to attack Jaune in the first place was now causing him to strike him all over, including the areas where his armor is protecting him.

Jaune’s senses were growing dimmer with each passing second as he felt a coldness come from deep in his heart. Within seconds, that coldness thawed and burned into fierce anger. Jaune didn’t understand why he was getting so angry all of a sudden… unless…

Jaune’s left eye suddenly turned green while the rest of his face contorted with rage. When the man swung the shovel at Jaune again, he suddenly caught it with ease and gripped it tightly with one hand. Since the repeated swinging from earlier had also caused the attacker to grow tired, he couldn’t relinquish the shovel, even with both hands.

Jaune’s hand glowed black as the shovel that the two were grasping was bending toward the man! While the man’s attention was caught by the bending shovel, Jaune’s gaze was squarely on him. Both of Jaune’s eyes narrowed while the green one on the left was exuding Aura. His glowing hand let go of the shovel and curled into a fist, which somehow caused the shovel to move and twist around the man’s throat very tightly! The man could only struggle as the very shovel he tried so hard to get was now strangling him!

After mere seconds, Jaune fell to his knees and started gasping for breath, and then started twitching after that as the black light faded from his hand. His voice started breaking through his mouth through indistinct gasps while the shovel’s ‘grip’ loosened from the man’s throat. He was crawling on the floor and confused while the once apathetic crowd stared at him in shock. Did he really just bend that metal around a man’s throat like that… or was that… her way of protecting him?

Pyrrha’s voice resonated within his mind after that realization, “ _Jaune? Are you all right?_ ”

When Jaune opened his mouth to say something, the only thing that came out was a stream of vomit.

Her voice resonated within his mind again, “ _Oh! Oh god! My soul! It’s still hurting you!_ ”

Jaune spit out a few streams of saliva before responding, “Pyr… Jus… Plea… Just give me a moment. I need to…”

He wiped his mouth and slowly stood up before stumbling toward the wounded villager that he was tending earlier, and after a few steps he collapsed on his knees again from dizziness. He stopped for a couple of seconds before crawling toward the wounded villager, and when he reached him, he pressed his hands over the wound on his face.

When his hands started glowing white, Jaune spoke out loud, “My head’s still a bit sore, so try not to ask too many questions. I’ll explain… when my head stops throbbing.”

Jaune used his Semblance again to treat the man’s injuries while he heard her voice gasp from within his mind, “ _Jaune… Is that…_ ”

He gritted his teeth and quickly responded, “Not now! I said I’ll explain later!”

After a few more minutes of using his Semblance, the injuries on the man’s head had now been completely healed and he spoke to the man, “Okay. Take it easy now. You’ll be fine.”

The man looked up at Jaune and appeared grateful, but didn’t respond. In fact, nobody responded. Everybody around Jaune simply stared at him.

Jaune didn’t notice this and spoke out loud again, “Don’t… ever do something like that again. You… you made me strangle someone! You actually took control of me and… used your Semblance!”

Her voice resonated within his mind again, “ _That man… He wouldn’t stop attacking you! I just… I’m sorry… but I can’t just watch you die from your own eyes and do nothing!_ ”

Jaune calmed down a bit and clutched his head, “I… I’m just so tired of death. The last thing I can take right now is having someone’s blood on my hands. Okay? Now, about what I just did back there… When my hands glow like that… This… is my Semblance. I can… heal people. Well, actually, I just recharge someone else’s Aura with my own and I can’t bring back a dead person, but…”

Pyrrha’s voice resonated from within his mind again while he felt a small feeling of warmth from his heart, “ _Your Semblance?! Jaune! You’ve discovered it?_ ”

Jaune was not so proud of himself, “Yea… It happened… when Cinder threw a spear… straight through Weiss. I… I was able to save her… Just barely… I was just so tired of watching my friends die… but it’s still not enough.”

That warmth instantly faded when her voice responded in his mind with worry, “ _Jaune?_ ”

Jaune’s voice started quivering as tears came down his eyes, “ **It’s still not enough!** I… I still can’t protect anybody. I… I just watched a Beowulf throw Kobe… what was left of his bloody corpse… right at me! Pyrrha… I… I couldn’t save you.”

Her voice was filled with sorrow that crept into Jaune’s heart, “ _Jaune…_ ”

Jaune stopped his tearful rant when he saw the villagers that were still in the bunker with him. They were all staring at him. From their point of view, they were witnessing someone shout at some ‘imaginary person’. Then, he remembered when Desmond told him that some of the villagers think that he had gone insane… and saw the faces of everyone staring at him. After looking around briefly, Jaune ignored the confused stares and swiftly left as his backup was arriving, covering his tear-stained face from the people watching him. Even after everything that had happened, it’s disturbing to know that there’s always a way to lose a little more dignity…


	7. Kindred Souls

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NOTICE: It’s obvious from the end of Volume 5 that the events of RWBY canon can’t entirely happen in a way that would lead to this story, since this story predicted that Haven would fall. Therefore, this story has the feel of an AU, rather than a prediction, but I still genuinely believe that some aspects of this story might end up canon.

After having been battered both physically and emotionally, Jaune left the bunker shortly after the other Hunters arrived after responding to his emergency call. While it was relieving to know that some Hunters would still help him when he needed it, the sheer apathy and rage given to him from the very people that he volunteered to protect left him… even **more** humbled than he usually was. He cared for his friends and those around him very much, but cared very little for himself, so hearing a man that lost his nephew and blamed him for failing to protect him hurt him more than that shovel ever could.

When Jaune looked up at the night sky, he could feel the thoughts coming from Pyrrha’s soul go through his mind. She was thinking about the time when she and Jaune were out in the balcony during the Beacon school dance. He could feel her regrets lingering in his mind. It was just teenage drama back then. Nobody had to feel helpless and fear for someone else’s safety. Life was so simple then…

Jaune gathered up his nerves and spoke to the fragment of that girl’s soul, “Pyrrha… I… I’m sorry.”

Her voice went through his mind when he said that, “ _For what?_ ”

He took a deep breath before explaining, “I… took my anger out on you earlier… and… you were just worried about me… and I…”

Her voice interrupted him, “ _Jaune, stop._ ”

He tried to continue as if he didn’t hear her, “You were always worried about me! I…”

Her voice interrupted him with a louder tone, “ _Jaune! Please… don’t apologize._ ”

He stopped at that moment while her voice started to explain, “ _You were right. I… I did throw my life away. I shoved you in that locker and went to fight Cinder… alone. I’m sorry._ ”

Jaune only muttered a single word, “Pyrrha…”

Her voice started trembling within his mind as his emotions started twisting from the inside out, “ _I got myself killed... and left you all behind… and now, all I could do was hope that my friends could shoulder my burden for me._ ”

Jaune struggled to speak with the painful emotions inside him, “Pyrrha, you left us all with a big hole in our lives when we lost you. I admit it. I was angry at you when you left us… Really angry... but I still tried to live up to my family name… and to you. I… I admired you.”

The painful emotions inside Jaune suddenly subsided when her voice went through his mind, “ _Jaune…_ ”

His confiding became a bit easier when they did subside, “You were so strong… so brave… so nice… and… beautiful.”

He heard a loud gasp in his mind before he continued, “You were everything I wanted to be! Everything I wished I could be, but… I was just an idiot! I… I was so weak compared to my friends! I held my team back at Beacon! I wish I was the one that died that night instead of you.”

Those same painful feelings came back and hit Jaune like a train when Pyrrha’s voice shouted in his mind, “ _Don’t say that!_ ”

Jaune started shaking as he kept trying in vain to keep himself composed, “It’s true!”

Her voice shouted again, “ _Jaune, please!_ ”

Jaune gritted his teeth and lost his composure, “ **I mean it!** I… I hate living like this! I hate failing when someone depends on me. I have living with the guilt. I’m so tired of losing everything! There’s a part of me… that just wants the guilt to end.”

Her voice didn’t go through his mind, but he could feel her sorrow as tears came from his eyes, “I’m just a failure… with a death wish.”

Everything was silent between the two with only a renewed feeling of heartbreak to replace the tension. Jaune felt like an emotional weight was lifted from his shoulders… only for that weight to be replaced by the sorrow that came from Pyrrha’s soul.

After that moment of silence, her voice resonated through his mind again, “ _I’m sorry… that my death caused you such pain. I… failed you too._ ”

He could feel even more of her sorrow bubbling in his heart after her apology, as if she was holding back tears, “Pyrrha… You… You were… the best of us… The strongest… and the bravest…”

He heard her voice suddenly shout in anguish, “ _Stop it!_ ”

Jaune collapsed on his knee due to the sheer emotional stress coming from her soul, “Pyrrha? Wh-what are you..?”

From that point, every word that Jaune heard from Pyrrha’s soul was like a needle piercing his heart, “ ** _You’re wrong!_** _Every reason that you idolize me… Every reason that the world once put me on a pedestal… **It’s all wrong!** I didn’t push you away to fight Cinder because I was braver… or because I was stronger… or even because it was worth fighting for! I did it because I couldn’t bear the shame anymore!_ ”

The words that resonated through Jaune’s mind felt like a contradiction to everything he ever knew about Pyrrha, which left him nearly speechless, “What?”

The sheer sorrow that came from her soul was more than enough to actually restrain Jaune, as he fell from his knee and onto his thigh while she recounted everything from that terrible night, “ _I was supposed to accept the Fall Maiden’s power. I was the one that was meant to bear the responsibility of saving the world on my shoulders! I should have accepted that power the instant I was told, but… I was afraid._ ”

While he was struggling to get back up, Jaune recalled the story that Qrow told him over a campfire once, “Ruby’s uncle… told the rest of our team about what happened… before we got separated. He told me… that your Aura would become intertwined with the Aura of the last Fall Maiden, and that nobody could predict what would happen to you. I was there in that vault when you accepted it. I saw you.”

Her voice was still filled with sorrow about that terrible night, “ _I should have bore that burden sooner. I was a Huntress! I shouldn’t have been too afraid to accept my destiny! None of this would have happened if I… I…_ ”

Jaune could actually hear her voice crying from inside of him, which in turn was causing his limbs to quiver, “P-Pyrrha…”

He could only hear Pyrrha’s voice within his mind, fallen into hopeless despair, “ _If something… really would have happened to me… then it would have been worth it… because at least I… I wouldn’t have… I wouldn’t have faced Penny in that match and… **I killed Penny!** I… I killed a young girl… in a stadium… filled with thousands of people! All of those eyes… watching me… rip her to pieces…_ ”

Jaune’s mind was getting flooded with visions of Penny’s robotic body torn to pieces, followed by the sounds of a horrified crowd, “ _I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to kill her! I didn’t mean to…_ ”

He desperately called out for some way to stop these visions, “Pyrrha, please snap out of it!”

He heard her voice call back to him as the visions started to fade, “ _Jaune?_ ”

Jaune was gasping for breath, as if he has awoken from a vivid nightmare, while Pyrrha’s soul resonated in his mind, “ _I’m sorry. I had almost forgotten that you can intimately feel my emotions._ ”

When he caught his breath, Jaune crawled back up to his knee, “Those images… in my mind… They’re just like the nightmares I’ve been having. I already figured that much out before, but I also thought that it was just that annoying Maiden girl putting them in my head, just like when she strapped me down on that bed.”

Jaune stood back up on his feet, “I get it now. Those nightmares I’ve been having… They’re just your traumatic memories… Flashbacks… just like what old war veterans go through in the movies…”

Her voice was much calmer when it resonated through his mind, “ _Yes, I suppose that’s an accurate way to look at it. After Penny… died, I heard the outburst that came from the crowd around me and… something just… broke inside of me. Then, I heard Cinder’s voice addressing the crowd about what just happened… Everything just went black for me before Ruby stepped in and…_ ”

Jaune interrupted her, “That wasn’t your fault! It was Cinder!”

Her voice resonated in his mind with unusual fury, “ ** _Does it matter?! I used my Semblance on her! She died by my hands and…_** _the world saw it._ ”

He tried to interrupt her again, “Pyrrha…”

The fury in her voice was replaced with sorrow again, “ _I know I kept a strong face after that, but deep down… all I could think about was atoning for my failure to accept the Fall Maiden’s power quickly enough and for my part in Penny’s death! The shame… consumed me! I… I couldn’t bear it! I couldn’t face the stadium of people that watched me kill her! I couldn’t face the friends and family that would grieve for her! I couldn’t face anyone in Beacon! And… I couldn’t face the world that I swore to protect!_ ”

Jaune’s limbs quivered as he heard her voice start crying again, “ _I couldn’t look into their eyes! I couldn’t face their judgment or bear the shame of an innocent death on my shoulders! I know that my social status… the ‘pedestal’ that the public put me on… wasn’t something I was entirely fond of, but… I couldn’t bear the thought of failing the people that put me on that pedestal! In the end, that was my fatal flaw. I… I wasn’t strong enough to move forward! Not if it meant living like a pariah! And… that was why… I faced Cinder that night._ ”

Jaune’s eyes widened while his limbs were still numb, “What?”

Her voice resonated through his mind with a tearful confession, “ _I had to make things right… whatever the cost! I had to do it alone because it was **my** weakness that allowed all of it to happen! I couldn’t let anyone else die because of me! That’s why I pushed you away… why I pushed **everyone** away… I had to do it alone! I had to be the ‘Invincible Girl’ that the world needed! If I failed… **again** … then death would be my punishment!_”

Jaune’s anger was palpable, despite the fact that the sorrow from Pyrrha’s soul was enough to keep him restrained, “Pyrrha… **why?** ”

Her voice continued to resonate through his mind with a sad, but dignified tone, “ _I already told you. Something broke in me that night. I didn’t even care about how anyone else felt! I just… wanted the guilt to end. I committed glorified suicide and left my friends to pick up my burden. I have no excuse. I’m sorry._ ”

And just like that, Jaune’s anger faded almost instantly. It was as if her humble apology had sapped the fury from him… again.

Before he could even decide what to do or say, he heard her voice resonate through his mind again, “ _Jaune? Please don’t throw your life away. Don’t make the mistake that I made. I know what it’s like to think that death would bring you peace. I felt that way once… but it didn’t. I was wrong! My death didn’t make anything better… and neither would yours. I… I’m still broken inside! Even in death, the past still haunts me! There isn’t a single moment when my thoughts don’t drift back to what happened that night, but… it’s too late for me now. I can’t make things right. Not anymore…_ ”

Jaune was at a loss for what to do, and whenever that happened before, Pyrrha was the one that would offer guidance. Now, she… or a traumatized piece of her soul was in his mind, so he did what he usually did.

He asked her for help, “Pyrrha? What do I do?”

After a brief pause and no response, he asked again, “Do I have to break my promise to stay by these people, leave a village that’s probably going to burn no matter what I do, and lose what’s left of you just to save myself, or do I keep my promise, stay and probably fail to protect this village, and die for it without accomplishing anything? What am I supposed to do here? There’s no good answer for this.”

Pyrrha’s voice resonated in his mind again, “ _You’re right. There is no ideal solution. I honestly don’t know… and even if I did, I have no right… Not now… Not after everything that’s happened… Remember?_ ”

Jaune recalled the moment he lashed out at her and still felt guilty for it, before her voice continued, “ _I suppose that the only thing you can do is… to just live and do what you can. That’s it. I know it doesn’t help much, but it might be better to worry about what you can do… and not to worry about what you can’t do. Does that help you?_ ”

Jaune exhaled with a sad look on his face, “Yea…”

He pulled out the Soulstone that the Death Maiden gave him from his pocket and saw the green eye in the reflection of the stone staring back at him, “I know what I can still do…”

Her voice seemed almost content after Jaune said that, “ _Even after all of the pain you’ve went through… you can still move forward? Jaune… I… I’m so proud… to see how far you’ve come… You’ve become so str…_ ”

Before she finished, Jaune dropped the Soulstone on the ground… He took one last look at it before stomping it as hard as he could with his boot… and crushing the Soulstone to pieces! And with that, any hope of getting his life back was crushed along with it!

Despite the sheer consequence of what he just did, Jaune felt strangely calm about it, “No, I didn’t. I can’t overcome all this. I’m not strong enough. I can’t move forward. Not anymore…”

Pyrrha’s soul, on the other hand, filled his heart with her horror, “ _Jaune… Do you understand what you’ve just done?!_ ”

Even the horror that he felt from her didn’t do much to change his mood, “Yea… I’m going to die. I know. It doesn’t matter now. I was too weak to make a difference anyway.”

Her voice resonated in his mind with heartbreak, “ _But… I…_ ”

Just like the horror before, the heartbreak now didn’t change his mood much, “Pyrrha, I can’t lose you. Not again…”

Just like that, her heartbreak turned into a sense of astonishment, “ _What?_ ”

Jaune acted as if he learned some kind of epiphany now, “I can’t let you go. I can’t move forward without you, Pyrrha.”

Her voice was so quiet, but filled with awe, “ _Jaune…_ ”

Jaune actually laughed a bit and brought up old memories, “Hey, Pyrrha. Remember when you found me in Emerald Forest? I was stuck in that tree. I was inexperienced and wanted to live up to my family’s legacy so much that I faked my way into Beacon. You got me down from that tree, picked me up when I was down, trained me to be better… and left a piece of yourself in me. Remember? You unlocked my Aura like that… and then I quickly became stronger and better than I was at the start. Do you know why, Pyrrha? It all makes sense when you think about it. It was you. You gave me that strength. I’m not just talking about emotional strength. I mean ‘actual’ strength. I had this piece of your soul in me all this time… and that’s why I have so much Aura now. I… was never strong. It was your strength… all this time. What would happen if I lost this last piece of you? Do you think I’d be strong enough to even survive four minutes in the Grimm-infested Beacon Academy after I lose this piece of you? You think I’d even be strong enough to accept death to save someone else… without you?”

There was no response from her, but Jaune could feel his emotions stirring again as tears came down his eyes, “No, I couldn’t. You know how the fear of failing the people that looked up to you was your fatal flaw? Well, I have one, too. I’ve become… dependant on you. I’m no good on my own.”

Her voice resonated within his mind with a sad, yet heartfelt tone, “ _You need me?!_ ”

Jaune made no effort to stop the tears from flowing out of his eyes, “Yes! I… I admit it. I’m nothing without you. Pyrrha… Please don’t leave me.”

He heard her gasp as he kept begging, “I… I promised the people of this village that I would do everything I could to keep them safe… and that I wouldn’t just leave them to die when things got bad. Well… **look at how bad things are!** You can see it through my eyes, right? The buildings are torn up, the food supply here is ruined, the corpses… Oh god… They’re all over the ground… But, it doesn’t matter… An Arc… never goes back on his word!”

His begging turned into quiet sobbing at this point, “Please… I can’t face death on my own! I’m so scared!”

Jaune collapsed on the ground as he heard her heartbroken voice in his mind, “ _I suppose I don’t have any choice._ ”

His limbs started quivering when he heard her voice start crying again, “ _Everything I’ve done… In the end, it was all for nothing!_ ”

Jaune struggled to speak, “P-Pyrrha…”

Her voice resonated through his mind again, “ _Jaune… I… I’m sorry. I’m trying… I’m trying to stay calm, but…_ ”

Jaune grasped his legs to keep himself up, “Pyrrha… It’s okay.”

He sat on the ground and relaxed, “It’s okay. You don’t have to be strong anymore.”

After a brief pause and no response, he lied on the ground, “Pyrrha, you know if you ever need help, you can just ask.”

Her voice was filled with despair, “ _Jaune… I’m beyond help. I’m dead!_ ”

That last sentence was painful to hear, but he kept his cool, “I know! I… I know. Pyrrha… I can’t give you back your life. But… maybe I can help you through your trauma.”

After a moment of silent contemplation, her voice resonated through his mind again, “ _How exactly do you intend to help me?_ ”

Jaune took a moment to actually think about it, “Uh… Well… Maybe you can… talk to me? You might feel better if you have someone to talk about it with. Or maybe I can take your mind off of that terrible night altogether? I can tell you about how I grew up with seven sisters, or you can tell me about your family.”

Her voice sounded slightly amused at the idea, “ _In other words, a therapy session._ ”

Jaune exhaled in disgust, “Well, when you say it like that, it just sounds silly. But… that’s really all I can do for you now. I hope that’s enough.”

After a brief pause, he spoke again, “Pyrrha, I’m not the amazing hero that my father and his father were… and you’re not that ‘Invincible Girl’ that’s on the box of Marshmallow Pete’s cereal… but that’s okay. You’ve done many amazing things in your life already! It was just too much this time. That’s all. We were just **students** caught up in a problem that was too big for us. I know I’m in that situation right now. I couldn’t do very much back in Beacon, and I’ll probably fail to make a difference in something as simple as one remote village, but maybe I can at least help you feel better.”

He could feel Pyrrha’s soul resonate in his mind with a gentle peace, “ _Jaune… I never expected you to go this far for me._ ”

Jaune got off of the ground and back on his feet, “And I never expected you to fall this far since we first met, but now I’m going to be around to pick you back up. Okay? You don’t have to hide anything from me. Your guilt… Your shame… You can put it on my shoulders now! I’ll carry it for you!”

Her voice had such a solemn, yet heartfelt tone, “ _But, you gave away… **everything…** Your life… Your aspirations… Everything you’ve worked so hard for… You threw it all away… just to ease the lingering regrets of a dead Huntress…_”

He answered without any hesitation, “Yes, I did. Even if I die trying to protect these people, I know I can still help you. After everything I’ve seen, I know there has to be some kind of existence after death. It doesn’t matter now. I’ll still be around in some way to help you rest in peace, no matter how long it takes. You deserve that much.”

This was the moment when all of the emotions of a dead Huntress struck him at once. Her grief, her shame, and even her joy… Everything fell on Jaune like he was physically being weighted down by a barbell, but like any Arc, he kept his word.

He could hear her voice sobbing uncontrollably, “ _I thought… the guilt… would burden my soul… forever… I’ve actually forgotten… what it’s like… to see the light… at the end._ ”

Jaune closed his eyes and imagined that he was hugging her in the flesh, “Shh… It’s all right… It’s all right. I’m here for you now.”

He could hear her voice speak so sweetly in his mind, “ _Jaune… Thank you. Your forgiveness means so much to me!_ ”

Just like before, his limbs started quivering when her voice started crying again, but he stayed on his feet this time and spoke softly, “Try and imagine that you’re already in my arms. Imagine me hugging you right now… My arms are around the back of your head… Your face is nuzzled on my shoulder… and my Aura is protecting you from all the negativity… You can hear your friends and family nearby… and we’re all going to help you through this.”

He could feel her voice calm down already, “ _Yes… You’ll be with me… always.  Even in death…_ ”

That brought a smile to Jaune’s face. Who knew that practicing those ASMR videos would actually come in handy someday?


	8. The Magnetic Arc-Angel

In the silent coldness of the night, Jaune stood just outside the borders of Higanbana by himself. He stood outside the prying eyes and ears of his fellow Hunters… and the villagers that lost faith in him. He stood on the edge of life and death while carrying both on his shoulders with a sense of hope and fear in his heart. His left eye was green and his right eye was blue, yet both were filled with purpose.

Pyrrha’s voice resonated through his mind, “ _Are you sure about this?_ ”

Jaune nodded and unsheathed his sword, “Yes.”

Her voice resonated through his mind again, “ _Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced. Follow these instructions._ ”

Jaune smiled silently with the feelings of nostalgia that this moment was bringing.

Her voice instructed him, “ _Shield up._ ”

Jaune lifts his shield up toward his face, so that only his eyes up are unprotected.

Her voice instructed him again, “ _Keep your grip tight._ ”

He tightens his hand on his sword.

Her voice instructed him again, “ _Don’t forget to keep your front foot forward._ ”

His foot is already forward and doesn’t move.

A few seconds of silence had passed until her voice resonated through his mind, “ _Ready? Go._ ”

Jaune steps forward with sword in hand, cutting at the air while grunting.

Her voice encourages him to swing a second time, “ _Again!_ ”

Jaune moves forward with his other foot while slashing the air and grunting again.

And then, her voice encourages him a third time, “ _And again._ ”

He held his shield closer to his face and thrust forward with his sword grunting louder with his teeth out.

After a few more seconds of silence, Pyrrha’s voice resonated through his mind again, “ _That was a bit different than what I remembered. You used to expend the rest of your energy on that last blow with a flourish._ ”

Jaune had an awkward response, “I… learned from that mistake. Too easy to get exhausted that way… I stopped doing that.”

Her voice responded as if she was impressed, “ _I see. You… really have grown so much since we’ve first met… and trained together… and…_ ”

Before she finished, Jaune’s expression grew despondent.

Pyrrha’s voice shared that sadness as her voice resonated through his mind again, “ _I suppose it doesn’t matter now. None of it…_ ”

Jaune looked at his sword and saw his grief-stricken face in the reflection, “Yea… This isn’t ‘just the beginning’. Not this time…”

His green eye and the blisters on his face were permanent reminders of that fact, and so he responded with solemn acceptance, “This is the end… for both of us.”

There was sorrow bubbling in his heart when her voice resonated in his mind, “ _And all of this happened to you… when I…_ ”

Jaune interrupted these thoughts, “Pyrrha. You’re doing it again.”

Her voice responded abruptly, “ _What?_ ”

He tried to take her mind off of her guilt, “You know ‘what’. You’re dwelling on the past again.”

Her voice resonated in his mind with surprise, “ _Jaune, I didn’t say anything. Wait… Didn’t I..?_ ”

Jaune chuckled to himself, like he just discovered a miracle, only it wasn’t so ‘miraculous’, “No, you didn’t say anything… but you **thought** something. Your thoughts were drifting on the past again.”

Her voice gasped in amazement before resonating in his mind again, “ _You can hear my inner thoughts now?!_ ”

After a brief moment, her voice settled into bemused contentment, “ _I see. My soul… and yours… We are… Well, I’m not really sure what to say… or think… about that._ ”

Jaune thought something without physically saying it, “ _That goes double for me._ ”

He felt a surge of laughter come from his heart as she responded in his mind, “ _So, all of your inner thoughts are open to me, as well… I suppose I shouldn’t have been so surprised. A part of my soul has been stuck to you since our first day at Beacon… since we became partners. We seemed different in so many ways to our peers back then, but deep down…_ ”

He looked at his reflection again, stared deep into his green eye, and thought to himself, “ _We’re the same. Neither of us could move forward and… well, you know the rest._ ”

Her voice resonated in his mind with a resigned outlook, “ _How fitting._ ”

Jaune tried to change the depressing subject to… anything else, “So, uh… How long do you think it’ll take for these Grimm to show up again? I mean… I know we had to cut down on patrols to make up for the Hunters we lost in that last attack. I wonder if we’ll even survive the next wave…”

Pyrrha’s voice resonated in his mind again, “ _You still want to be ‘the hero’, don’t you?_ ”

Despite the bleak situation, Jaune had no reason to deny it, “Heh… You read my mind.”

Jaune felt a sudden sense of peace, contrary to the depression that he felt only seconds ago, when he heard her voice again, “ _I understand. I will… always…_ ”

He didn’t understand what this feeling signified, “What are you..?”

Before he could finish the question, her voice resonated in his mind again, “ _Jaune? Could you please… assume your battle stance again?_ ”

He was naturally confused by this, “Why?”

Her voice resonated in his mind, “ _There’s something I’d like to show you._ ”

A sense of excitement swelled within Jaune, though he didn’t understand why. He carried out the request of going into his training stance again, “Okay.”

After his shield went back up to his face, Pyrrha’s voice gave him an additional instruction, “ _Now, while you’re standing like that, could you… close your eyes?_ ”

Jaune was getting even more confused now, “Why would I want to close my eyes? I have to ‘stay focused’ when I’m in a fight. Closing my eyes is just… the opposite of ‘focused’.”

Her voice clarified the reason, “ _This isn’t part of training, per se. It’s… well, how can I put this? It’s a surprise. So… could you please close your eyes?_ ”

He didn’t see much of a point in arguing right now, so he went along with it. With his eyes closed, he experienced a strange feeling coursing through his body, particularly his right arm and hand. The sensation was making his arm go numb, and the rest of his body was getting cold.

Sensing his nervousness, her voice comforted him, “ _Please relax._ ”

While he kept his eyes closed and his stance firm, her voice recited an unusual elegy in his mind, “ _Even at the precipice of death, compassion lights a beacon of hope to those who can’t forgive themselves. With newfound light at the end of my journey, I share my strength with you, who will bear my regrets on your shoulder and my soul in your heart, until life’s end._ ”

The grip on Jaune’s right hand was involuntarily tightening on the hilt of his sword, as if someone was putting their hand over his. The rest of his body was feeling what could only be described as an ‘overflowing’ sensation. It was that feeling that could make a person’s hair stand on end. What was she doing to him?

Her voice continued to recite this elegy with warmth, “ _Triumphs mutual, sorrows shared, souls intertwined from life hereafter… always…_ ”

When she finished this speech, he felt Pyrrha’s thoughts and memories force their way through his mind. He saw their first meeting at Emerald Forest, when she unlocked his Aura, and their time at the Beacon Dance, when she saw him in that silly dress. He saw these moments from her eyes and felt the joy she felt from them. He felt his arm curve itself upward a little bit, as if someone was pushing it. Was this her doing? Was she… guiding him? He struggled and twitched at first, but his thoughts drifted toward the times when she trained and inspired him.

Jaune’s nerves were calmed as he thought to himself (and her), “ _You still believe in me…_ ”

Her voice resonated in his mind with such warmth, “ _Yes._ ”

With a heartwarming smile, all of his insecurities melted away as her happier memories coursed through his mind. This wasn’t like that moment when the Death Maiden wrapped him on a bed and subjugated him to imagery of fear and dread until he went unconscious. This was just the opposite. It felt gentle and intimate… like there was nothing to fear. Emboldened by these memories, he completely relinquished his thoughts to her the same way.

Her voice resonated in his mind again, “ _Are you ready?_ ”

Jaune thrust his sword straight forward with his eyes closed and felt all of the sensation he felt earlier course through his right hand.

Her voice resonated in his mind yet again, “ _Okay. You can open your eyes now._ ”

When he did, the first thing that caught his eye was his right hand and sword, which were covered in a black Aura. The next thing he noticed was one of the pieces of the now broken metal fence that was bordering around the village, which was also covered in the same black Aura.

His eyes widened in amazement, “Is that really..?”

To confirm his speculation, he tilted his sword upward… and watched as that piece of fence rose above the ground to where his sword was pointing, “Pyrrha! This is…”

Her voice resonated in his mind with tender affection, “ _Yes. The manifestation of the strength I carried in life: polarity._ ”

He stared at the floating piece of fence with amazement as it kept swooning in the air as he moved his arm, “Your Semblance! You’re actually giving it to me?!”

Her voice was so warm and kind that he could feel that warmth spread through his body from the inside, “ _That… and so much more. My Semblance, my soul, and… my heart: these are my gifts to you!_ ”

Jaune looked around at all of the debris nearby from the previous Grimm attack… and noticed just how much of it was metal.

Her voice encouraged him, “ _Go on, Jaune. Try it out. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of the world moving at your whim. I know from experience._ ”

With excitement and trepidation, he started with a nearby shovel, some more pieces of fence, and a bent can that was littered on the ground. When all of the metal he noticed was covered in that same black Aura, he lightly swung his sword across the air, and all of that metal flung in the same direction that he swung. With more excitement and less trepidation, he thought about making the metal spin around him, like a tornado. Before he had a chance to swing his sword again, the metal began to do just that: spin around him! This discovery left Jaune in awe! The mere **thought** of how the metal would move… would cause it to do so instantly!

After that impressive display, Jaune finally finished what he was going to say earlier, “This is incredible!”

Pyrrha’s voice resonated in his mind with a peaceful, yet solemn tone, “ _Yes, it is. And now, I put this incredible power in your hands. It’s the least I can do… after everything you’ve went through._ ”

Jaune’s anxiety returned to him after that impressive display, “It’s all… too good for me.”

Her voice returned this anxiety immediately, “ _What?_ ”

He stared at his right hand, which was still covered in that black Aura, “I gave up any chance of living up to my family’s name because I couldn’t move forward without you. Remember?”

Her voice resonated in his mind with a serious tone, “ _Jaune! Listen to me!_ ”

This sudden surge of emotion caught him off guard, while her voice continued to resonate in his mind, “ _I know you may not have been the strongest Hunter… but you make up for it… in so many ways… and I…_ ”

Jaune interrupted this ‘empowering speech’, “If I’m so great, then why couldn’t I save you?”

Her voice resonated in his mind with so much warmth again, “ _But you did save me._ ”

And once again, he felt that warmth course through him, “Huh?”

Her voice clarified what that meant, “ _I may have died on that terrible night, but you still saved me in the end. I was consumed by so much guilt after everything happened the way it did. Remember how I told you that ‘something broke inside me’?_ ”

He was intrigued by where this was going, “Yea..?”

Pyrrha’s voice resonated in his mind with a sorrowful tone, “ _Even now, I still think about Penny… and what my soul is doing to your body. It still breaks my heart, but… knowing that you have forgiven me when I couldn’t forgive myself is… therapeutic. You were right. I fell so far from the strong and capable Huntress I once was, and anyone that loved me for my reputation alone would have abandoned me. But you… You gave up everything for a chance to help me! The real ‘me’… not the celebrity… and knowing that I’ll always have you to lean on when I need it… It’s just… It may not seem like much to you, but I was on the brink of despair ever since my death. Your kindness was the light that pulled me from that brink. You saved me in a way that’s beyond life and death! Thank you!_ ”

Jaune couldn’t help but smile, “Pyrrha…”

Her voice resonated in his mind again, “ _Jaune… I can’t give you back your life. And I can never begin to repay you for your kindness… But what I can do is give you a chance to live your dreams… before you die. My Semblance is yours now. Your own strength may not have been enough to help you become the hero you’ve always wanted to be, and so… my strength will help you shoulder that burden!_ ”

Jaune looked at his right hand and watched the black Aura that was covering it extend to cover his arm and shoulder.

Her voice left a lasting epiphany in his mind, “ _Well, Jaune..? We are partners, after all. The strength of my soul… and the kindness of your heart… Let’s do our best with what little we have left and let the chips fall where they may. If we can make a difference now… while we can… and help even one person… then…_ ”

He noticed how hesitant she was and finished her thought out loud, “Your death won’t have been so pointless…”

Her voice didn’t immediately respond in him, but he felt a tinge of sorrow creep through him, “That’s it, isn’t it? You just want a way to ease your guilt, right? It’s okay. You don’t have to hide anything from me. Remember? I’ll help you… no matter what.”

While he channeled his own white Aura through his left hand and watched as that extended across his left arm, her voice whispered in his mind, “ _Thank you._ ”

Her voice grew very quiet with these last two words, “ _My knight…_ ”

With both Auras, black and white, coursing through him, Jaune combined his sword and shield together using the enhancements smelted on his equipment that originally came from Pyrrha’s circlet. When both Auras met at the center of his body, they merged into an eye-catching swirl while the colors of his left green eye and right blue eye became a pure and matching cyan.

With a fierce cry, Jaune swung his sword through the air, vertically downward toward the ground, which caused all of the metal around him to coalesce in the shape of a much larger sword and smash the ground in front of him, as if it were an extension of his arm. He moved his arm to see his handiwork and saw that the indent he left caused the very ground to crack all around it, as if it was struck by a sword-shaped asteroid!

He already knew Pyrrha was once a renowned Huntress in her life, but this..? **This** was the power of her Semblance?! Many conflicting emotions came at Jaune all at once, replacing the despair and dread that loomed over him only a moment ago. Hope… appreciation… even a little bit of fear… but mostly curiosity.

There had to be so much more to this Semblance than simply smashing things. Perhaps it could even work in tandem with his Semblance of Aura Amplification… Jaune’s already tactically keen mind was contemplating all of the possibilities…

What does a man that lost his chance at a long life, but gained unimaginable power in its place, do with the precious time he has left?

Jaune gazed down at his hands, watching as the two combined Auras swirled in perfect harmony, and held his left hand over his heart in a fist, “Heh… Yea, we are partners… even now. Especially now… I’ll do anything for you.”

Her voice resonated in his mind with tenderness, “ _And I, you. Jaune, I… I…_ ”

He chuckled a little bit more before her voice said something inaudible, causing him to respond, “Huh?”

After a brief pause, her voice resonated in his mind with so much tender emotion, “ _I love you._ ”

With so much warmth coursing through him, Jaune stuttered with astonishment, “P-Pyrrha..?”

Pyrrha’s voice was filled with affection was it grew louder and more direct within him, “ _I love you, Jaune! I love you with all of my heart and soul!_ ”

The sheer emotion and joy that flowed through Jaune caused him to giggle incessantly, and her voice only filled him with more, “ _I love your kindness! I love your integrity! I love your selflessness and I love how you devote yourself to others! I love your little quirks and your imperfections! I love you and everything about you! **I love you with every fiber of my being!**_ ”

By this point, Jaune was overwhelmed by affection to the point that tears freely came down his eyes while her voice concluded this heartfelt confession, “ _And I can’t imagine the eternity after this life… without you by my side._ ”

It was hard to believe, but somehow… the idea of death didn’t seem frightening to Jaune anymore. Maybe it just means that both of their souls will cross over… together, even if they were stuck in this conjoined state. And if that was what awaited him in the end… then there was nothing to be afraid of.

With tears leaking from his eyes, Jaune laughed a little more and then responded with a heartwarming grin, “Pyrrha… I…”

After this little heartwarming exchange, their combined thoughts went toward the state of Higanbana. Is it still too late for this village? Higanbana is littered with the corpses of the poor victims that had their whole lives ahead of them, and what few are still alive are either the remaining Hunters, whose morale has dropped so low from all of the carnage, or the defenseless villagers who have lost their faith entirely. These people could use a savior right about now to slay the monsters and make things right… It actually dawned on Jaune that this was the start of his childhood ‘superhero fantasy’ come to life. With a second Semblance at his disposal, could he actually **be** that hero now..?

A little girl’s voice was in the background, “Hey! I’ve got a bone to pick with you!”

No… **They** would be the hero now. Two souls and one body, bound together for all of eternity.

That little girl kept trying to get Jaune’s attention, “Hellooooo? Are you even listening?”

What about their friends? If Ren or Nora saw Jaune’s blistered face or learned about his circumstances, how would they feel? What about his family? His parents and his seven sisters… What would they think of what he’s become? What if he dies before he ever has a chance to see them again? Just like that, some of the dread that he overca…

The Death Maiden hovered directly in front of Jaune, inches in front of his face and staring at him with glowing golden eyes, and interrupted his train of thought (and the narration), “ **You idiot!** ”

Jaune was briefly surprised at her sudden appearance, but gained a cold stance almost immediately, “You…”

The Death Maiden hovered backward a few inches and crossed her arms, “We need to talk.”

Jaune was still hostile toward the Maiden, but remained civil, “What do you want?”

The Death Maiden glared at him with the same hostility, “You **know** what I want. I made that **very** clear to you when I first showed myself to you.”

He remembered the conversation he had when she first appeared, “Pyrrha.”

The Death Maiden rolled her eyes at this misunderstanding, “No, not that girl herself… She’s already dead. You hear me? The girl you knew died over a **year** ago! What you have stuck to you is just a piece of her soul… Remember? It’s killing you, little by little, every day.”

He dismissed this information like it was nothing, “What’s your point?”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared on a rope swing being tethered by… nothing, “My point is that you had a long life ahead of you, and you threw it all away! And… against even my usually accurate diagnosis of eight to ten months, that soul fragment of yours managed to completely assimilate within you… in **less than two whole days!** That’s like a record! What? Did you just **let** her take you over like that?”

Jaune was partially distracted by the fact that the Death Maiden was swinging on a rope swing that was not only being held up by… nothing, but also wasn’t there… until just now, “Uh… You… I couldn’t just throw Pyrrha away like that! You don’t have a clue what she went through!”

The rope swing that the Death Maiden was on had suddenly stopped its motion in midair as her eyes glowed in a golden light again, “I know **everything** about that mortal, and you, and every other mortal on this plane of existence! Well, I thought I knew you. I thought that, maybe I could even trust you, but you made a different choice.”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared behind him without the rope swing, “Speaking of ‘choices’, here’s another stupid one you made: smashing my soulstone. You know… my personal Dust crystal? The one that I **trusted** you with… You could have just waited until I showed up again, said ‘no’ to what I told you to do, and then give it back to me!  But noooo… You thought it would better to just smash a perfectly good soulstone, like it grew on a tree!”

Jaune turned around and tried to retort, but he couldn’t find a good enough excuse for that choice, “I’m sorry.”

Jaune was momentarily surprised from the familiar catchphrase that just came out of his mouth, while the Death Maiden wasn’t as amused, “Was that **your** apology, or is her personality just affecting your brain? Well, it doesn’t matter now. You didn’t do what I told you to do, so now you’re getting what’s coming to you…”

The Death Maiden glared at Jaune menacingly, “And it’s gonna be sooner than you think!”

Jaune glared back at the Death Maiden, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The Death Maiden leaned back and hovered in mid-air with her arm over her hand, like she was leaning her elbow on something, “What if I told you that you might actually die **before** that soul fragment kills you? What if I told you that somebody else is gonna kill you first?”

Jaune gritted his teeth in anger, but before he could respond, Pyrrha’s voice resonated in his mind, “ _I will never allow that._ ”

Due to her ability to hear the thoughts of other people, the Death Maiden heard the response and seemed intrigued, while her voice continued, “ _If this is your idea of a threat, I strongly suggest you stand down. Otherwise, if you even think about harming a single hair of my soul mate…_ ”

The black Polarity Aura covered Jaune’s armor caused him to levitate off of the ground. This startled him, but this display of magnetism continued as eight of the broken pieces of fence bent and flew toward and around Jaune, before sticking to the back of his armor. The pieces of metal protruded out of the back side of his armor to appear like wings. This display of magnetism was made to make Jaune appear angelic, as if it was to mock the floating Death Maiden and her brown feathered wings by matching her stance.

Pyrrha’s voice concluded the threat within Jaune’s mind, which the Death Maiden could hear, “ _I will **end you!**_ ”

The Death Maiden appeared more bemused, rather than insulted, “First of all, if **I** was the one killing you, you’d already be dead, and second, why am I the bad one here? I was completely honest with you about your situation from the start, and I gave you the chance to make your own choice. I didn’t meddle with your life, and I don’t meddle with any other mortal lives. I followed all the rules! It was your choices that led you both to this moment, and someone else’s choice that might kill you even quicker than you thought.”

Jaune demanded to know more, “Who?”

The Death Maiden disappeared into thin air and reappeared in the sky above Jaune, “Nope! I’m letting you figure that one out on your own. I’m done! I had enough! I won’t show myself to you ever again until your life ends. You clearly have no respect for Primordials, so I think you need a lesson in humility! I’m just gonna let everything happen the way it does! My sister’s gonna enjoy the show either way!”

The Death Maiden paused, as if she was pondering something, “Well… Maybe I’ll give you one hint, just for the ‘lulz’.”

The Death Maiden’s eyes glowed in a golden color as she made her final warning, “Jaune Arc! A great battle will decide the fate of this village! Here’s my guess as to what happens… When it’s all over…”

She pointed directly at Jaune as she concluded her warning, “ **You will burn at the stake!** ”

The Death Maiden disappeared, leaving behind childlike laughter in the air.


End file.
